The LEGIONAR Trilogy
Thanks to our friend Mickaël de Prat, Légion'Arts is pleased to highlight a new author, a former legionnaire, whose unique journey and human experience enrich the spirit and values upheld by our community.
Louis Perez y Cid
By Branko Bencic
LEGIONAR is a trilogy about a journey within the French Foreign Legion and the lasting impact such an experience has on a man. In a personal, understated, and well-researched style, it follows the entry into a world apart, governed by its own rules, then the training, service, responsibility, the limits of endurance, camaraderie, and the gradual inner development of a man who, through experience, learns his own limits.
The first volume, Moja zeleno-rdeča pot (Green and Red - My Path), begins the journey. It recounts his arrival at the Legion, the discovery of a world whose codes he does not yet possess, and the first trials of body and mind. It is there that the man is forged into a soldier, before gradually learning what it means to be responsible for other men.
The second volume, Mera (The Sense of Measure), continues the narrative during a more mature period of service. The experience is no longer simply a matter of endurance or action; it becomes an apprenticeship in discernment, in work, in one's relationship with oneself, in relationships with others, and in the expectations one cultivates or imposes. It is the moment when the sense of balance gradually takes shape.
The third volume, Črta (The Line), closes the arc of the trilogy around a more internal question: that of limits, discernment, and the moment when a man understands that a path has reached its end.
The second volume, Mera (The Sense of Measure), continues the narrative during a more mature period of service. The experience is no longer simply a matter of endurance or action; it becomes an apprenticeship in discernment, in work, in one's relationship with oneself, in relationships with others, and in the expectations one cultivates or imposes. It is the moment when the sense of balance gradually takes shape.
The third volume, Črta (The Line), closes the arc of the trilogy around a more internal question: that of limits, discernment, and the moment when a man understands that a path has reached its end.
The author, Branko Benčič
Branko Benčič is a former legionnaire and author of the LEGIONAR trilogy. He served fifteen and a half years in the French Foreign Legion, with the 2nd Foreign Parachute Regiment (2e REP) in Corsica and the 3rd Foreign Infantry Regiment (3e REI) in French Guiana. His military experience left its mark on him not merely as a label, but as a period during which his understanding of order, responsibility, endurance, camaraderie, and self-awareness was forged.
After his military service, he worked for nearly two decades in demanding international environments, where his experience of discipline, discernment, and teamwork took on a new form. In the LEGIONAR trilogy, he revisits this period of his life through a personal, understated, and well-researched narrative, avoiding both military spectacle and romanticizing or embellishing the experience.
After his military service, he worked for nearly two decades in demanding international environments, where his experience of discipline, discernment, and teamwork took on a new form. In the LEGIONAR trilogy, he revisits this period of his life through a personal, understated, and well-researched narrative, avoiding both military spectacle and romanticizing or embellishing the experience.
Project Status for the Orange town Book Fair
For the Orange Book Fair, the presentation will focus on the author, the LEGIONAR trilogy, and the first two volumes in Slovenian.
The first volume, Moja zeleno-rdeča pot (My Green and Red Path), is expected to be published before the Fair.
The second volume, Mera (The Sense of Measure), has already been proofread and is in the final stages of preparation. Its publication before September remains a realistic goal, subject to the final stages of layout, approval, and printing.
The third volume, Črta (The Line), is complete in manuscript form. Its publication is planned for 2027, which already allows LEGIONAR to be presented as a cohesive trilogy, and not as a project limited to a single book.
The French translation of the first volume is underway. By the time of the Fair, the goal is to have a translated manuscript. However, the final French edition will depend on the final proofreading and editorial work. Although it is not yet available in September, the project can nevertheless be presented to the French-speaking public through a presentation of the author, a summary of the trilogy in French, the cover of the first volume and a translated excerpt.
The first volume, Moja zeleno-rdeča pot (My Green and Red Path), is expected to be published before the Fair.
The second volume, Mera (The Sense of Measure), has already been proofread and is in the final stages of preparation. Its publication before September remains a realistic goal, subject to the final stages of layout, approval, and printing.
The third volume, Črta (The Line), is complete in manuscript form. Its publication is planned for 2027, which already allows LEGIONAR to be presented as a cohesive trilogy, and not as a project limited to a single book.
The French translation of the first volume is underway. By the time of the Fair, the goal is to have a translated manuscript. However, the final French edition will depend on the final proofreading and editorial work. Although it is not yet available in September, the project can nevertheless be presented to the French-speaking public through a presentation of the author, a summary of the trilogy in French, the cover of the first volume and a translated excerpt.