By Zeb Larson

Paco Roca’s The Lighthouse is an interesting and quirky read, perfect for a Saturday afternoon where you don’t need a heavy story but could do with something that’s still thought-provoking. It’s a quick read but one that still manages to pack a fair bit of material into just over sixty pages: war, peace, dreams, and the collision of all three of those. It’s a worthwhile read, in part because it subverts some of the expectations you might have going into a story like this. Set during the Spanish Civil War, Francisco is a young Republican soldier on the run from the Fascists. After a particularly narrow escape, he takes shelter in an isolated lighthouse with an eccentric keeper, Telmo. Facing the defeat of his side and the question of what comes next, Francisco instead begins looking at life in a new way.