We've ranked the best spain books using expert recommendations, sales data, and millions of reader ratings. At Shortform, we know books. Our book guides are the best in the world. Learn why.
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1
The Shadow of the Wind (The Cemetery of Forgotten Books, #1)
Carlos Ruiz Zafon and Lucia Grave
5.0
Barcelona, 1945: A city slowly heals from its war wounds, and Daniel, an antiquarian book dealer's son who mourns the loss of his mother, finds solace in a mysterious book entitled The Shadow of the Wind, by one Julian Carax. But when he sets out to find the author's other works, he makes a shocking discovery: someone has been systematically destroying every copy of every book Carax has written. In fact, Daniel may have the last of Carax's books in existence. Soon Daniel's seemingly innocent quest opens a door into one of Barcelona's darkest secrets--an epic story of murder, madness, and doomed love. --back cover
Paulo Coelho's enchanting novel has inspired a devoted following around the world. This story, dazzling in its powerful simplicity and inspiring wisdom, is about an Andalusian shepherd boy named Santiago who travels from his homeland in Spain to the Egyptian desert in search of a treasure buried in the Pyramids. What starts out as a journey to find worldly goods turns into a discovery of the treasure found within. Lush, evocative, and deeply humane, the story of Santiago is an eternal testament to the transforming power of our dreams and the importance of listening to our hearts.
There's a great quote in this book: When you're on the right path the universe conspires to help you! [source]
Daniel Ek
It was fascinating to talk to the author about how this book came to be such a hit—he never backed down, and he allowed people to read it for free in order to then boost sales—much like how Spotify’s freemium model was perceived in the early days. [source]
Eric Ripert
Speaks of everyone having an ultimate goal in life, but most of us are too afraid to pursue it. The encouragement to fulfill your dreams is very inspirational! [source]
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3
Don Quixote
Miguel de Cervantes, Edith Grossman
4.8
Edith Grossman's definitive English translation of the Spanish masterpiece, in an expanded P.S. edition
Widely regarded as one of the funniest and most tragic books ever written, Don Quixote chronicles the adventures of the self-created knight-errant Don Quixote of La Mancha and his faithful squire, Sancho Panza, as they travel through sixteenth-century Spain. You haven't experienced Don Quixote in English until you've read this masterful translation.
This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.
I read this book as a child and then, reread many times as an adult. And he’s my favorite character. [source]
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4
Homage to Catalonia
George Orwell
4.7
In 1936 George Orwell travelled to Spain to report on the Civil War and instead joined the fight against the Fascists. This famous account describes the war and Orwell’s own experiences. Introduction by Lionel Trilling.
The other reason I picked this book is that Orwell, like Dan Schorr, was an outsider. When he went to Spain, he was an unknown. He wasn’t Hemingway. He wasn’t a well-connected intellectual. He just had this amazing eye for detail. He was an amazing observer, and he could write so powerfully. This book, to me, is just one of the classics of foreign reporting. [source]
Anyone who wants to go off and write about Egypt, Tunisia or Libya today should pack a copy of Homage to Catalonia. It’s brilliant reportage. As you know, it opens with a vignette of an Italian militiaman in the barracks in Barcelona and he only saw this guy for a few moments but it captures the excitement. [source]
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The Angel's Game (The Cemetery of Forgotten Books, #2)
Carlos Ruiz Zafón
4.6
At the beginning of this powerful labyrinthian thriller, David Martin, a pulp fiction writer struggling to stay afloat, is holed up in an abandoned mansion in the heart of Barcelona, furiously tapping out story after story, becoming increasingly desperate and frustrated.
When he is approached by a mysterious publisher offering a book deal that seems almost too good to be real. David leaps at the chance. But as he begins the work, and after a visit to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, he realizes that there is a connection between his book and the shadows that surround his dilapidated home and that the publisher may be hiding a few troubling secrets of his own.
Once again, Carlos Ruiz Zafón takes us into a dark, gothic Barcelona and creates a breathtaking tale of intrigue, romance, and tragedy.
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For Whom the Bell Tolls
Ernest Hemingway
4.6
Hemingway's classic novel of the Spanish Civil War. In 1937 Ernest Hemingway traveled to Spain to cover the civil war; three years later he completed the greatest novel to emerge from "the good fight," For Whom the Bell Tolls. The story of Robert Jordan, a young American in the International Brigades, it tells of loyalty and courage, love and defeat, and the tragic death of an ideal. Surpassing his achievement in The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms, Hemingway creates a work at once rare and beautiful, strong and brutal, compassionate, moving and wise. "If the function of a writer is to reveal reality," Maxwell Perkins wrote to Hemingway after reading the manuscript, "no one ever so completely performed it." For Whom the Bell Tolls stands as one of the best war novels of all time.
Ernest Hemingway did more to change the style of English prose than any other writer in the twentieth century, and for his efforts he was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1954. Hemingway wrote in short, declarative sentences and was known for his tough, terse prose. Publication of The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms immediately established Ernest Hemingway as one of the greatest literary lights of the twentieth century. As part of the expatriate community in 1920s Paris, the former journalist and World War I ambulance driver began a career that lead to international fame. Hemingway was an aficionado of bullfighting and big-game hunting, and his main protagonists were always men and women of courage and conviction, who suffered unseen scars, both physical and emotional. He covered the Spanish Civil War, portraying it in fiction in his brilliant novel For Whom the Bell Tolls, and he subsequently covered World War II. His classic novella The Old Man and the Sea won the Pulitzer Prize in 1953. He died in 1961.
The quintessential novel of the Lost Generation, The Sun Also Rises is one of Ernest Hemingway’s masterpieces and a classic example of his spare but powerful writing style.
A poignant look at the disillusionment and angst of the post-World War I generation, the novel introduces two of Hemingway’s most unforgettable characters: Jake Barnes and Lady Brett Ashley. The story follows the flamboyant Brett and the hapless Jake as they journey from the wild nightlife of 1920s Paris to the brutal bullfighting rings of Spain with a motley group of expatriates. First published in 1926, The Sun Also Rises helped establish Hemingway as one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century.
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Recommended by Wai Chee Dimock.
Wai Chee Dimock
Many people don’t appreciate what a big commitment writing this novel was for Hemingway. He was used to writing short stories. It meant he had to spend a lot of time on one book that could have been spent more profitably writing short stories. Like many of Hemingway’s later novels, it is stitched together from shorter pieces – in this case, what he’d already written about Pamplona. [source]
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8
The Prisoner of Heaven (The Cemetery of Forgotten Books, #3)
Carlos Ruiz Zafon
4.5
Barcelona, 1957. It is Christmas, and Daniel Sempere and his wife, Bea, have much to celebrate. They have a beautiful new baby son named Julián, and their close friend Fermín Romero de Torres is about to be wed. But their joy is eclipsed when a mysterious stranger visits the Sempere bookshop and threatens to divulge a terrible secret that has been buried for two decades in the city’s dark past.
His appearance plunges Fermín and Daniel into a dangerous adventure that will take them back to the 1940s and the early days of Franco’s dictatorship. The terrifying events of that time launch them on a search for the truth that will put into peril everything they love, and will ultimately transform their lives. --back cover
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Ghosts of Spain: Travels Through Spain and its Silent Past
Giles Tremlett
4.5
The appearance, more than sixty years after the Spanish Civil War ended, of mass graves containing victims of Francisco Franco’s death squads finally broke what Spaniards call “the pact of forgetting”—the unwritten understanding that their recent, painful past was best left unexplored. At this charged moment, Giles Tremlett embarked on a journey around the country and through its history to discover why some of Europe’s most voluble people have kept silent so long. Ghosts of Spain is the fascinating result of that journey. In elegant and passionate prose, Tremlett unveils the tinderbox of disagreements that mark the country today. Delving into such emotional questions as who caused the Civil War, why Basque terrorists kill, why Catalans hate Madrid, and whether the Islamist bombers who killed 190 people in 2004 dreamed of a return to Spain’s Moorish past, Tremlett finds the ghosts of the past everywhere. At the same time, he offers trenchant observations on more quotidian aspects of Spanish life today: the reasons, for example, Spaniards dislike authority figures, but are cowed by a doctor’s white coat, and how women have embraced feminism without men noticing.
Drawing on the author’s twenty years of experience living in Spain, Ghosts of Spain is a revelatory book about one of Europe’s most exciting countries.
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10
La catedral del mar (La catedral del mar, #1)
Ildefonso Falcones de Sierra
4.5
Siglo XIV. La ciudad de Barcelona se encuentra en su momento de mayor prosperidad; ha crecido hacia la Ribera, el humilde barrio de los pescadores, cuyos habitantes deciden construir, con el dinero de unos y el esfuerzo de otros, el mayor templo mariano jamás conocido: Santa María de la Mar.
Una construcción que es paralela a la azarosa historia de Arnau, un siervo de la tierra que huye de los abusos de su señor feudal y se refugia en Barcelona, donde se convierte en ciudadano y, con ello, en hombre libre.
El joven Arnau trabaja como palafrenero, estibador, soldado y cambista. Una vida extenuante, siempre al amparo de la catedral de la mar, que le iba a llevar de la miseria del fugitivo a la nobleza y la riqueza. Pero con esta posición privilegiada también le llega la envidia de sus pares, que urden una sórdida conjura que pone su vida en manos de la Inquisición...
"La catedral del mar" es una trama en la que se entrecruzan lealtad y venganza, traición y amor, guerra y peste, en un mundo marcado por la intolerancia religiosa, la ambición material y la segregación social. Todo ello convierte esta obra no sólo en una novela absorbente, sino también en la más fascinante y ambiciosa recreación de las luces y sombras de la época feudal.
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El tiempo entre costuras
María Dueñas
4.5
An outstanding success around the world, The Time in Between has sold more than two million copies and inspired the Spanish television series based on the book, dubbed by the media as the "Spanish Downton Abbey." In the US it was a critical and commercial hit, and a New York Times bestseller in paperback.
La joven modista Sira Quiroga abandona el Madrid agitado de los meses previos al alzamiento arrastrada por el amor desbocado hacia un hombre a quien apenas conoce. Con él se instala en Tánger, una ciudad exótica y vibrante donde todo puede suceder. Incluso la traición.
Sola, desubicada y cargada de deudas ajenas, Sira se traslada a Tetuán, capital del Protectorado Español en Marruecos. Gracias a la ayuda de nuevas amistades forjará una nueva identidad y logrará poner en marcha un taller de alta costura en el que atenderá a clientas de orígenes lejanos y presentes insospechados. A partir de entonces, con los ecos de la guerra europea resonando en la distancia, el destino de Sira queda ligado al de un puñado de carismáticos personajes que la empujarán hacia un inesperado compromiso en el que las artes de su oficio ocultarán algo mucho más arriesgado.
El tiempo entre costuras es una novela de amor, de ritmo imparable cargada de encuentros y desencuentros, de identidades encubiertas y giros inesperados; de ternura, traiciones y ángeles caídos.
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12
Spain in Our Hearts: Americans in the Spanish Civil War, 1936–1939
Adam Hochschild
4.4
From the acclaimed, best-selling author Adam Hochschild, a sweeping history of the Spanish Civil War, told through a dozen characters, including Ernest Hemingway and George Orwell: a tale of idealism, heartbreaking suffering, and a noble cause that failed
For three crucial years in the 1930s, the Spanish Civil War dominated headlines in America and around the world, as volunteers flooded to Spain to help its democratic government fight off a fascist uprising led by Francisco Franco and aided by Hitler and Mussolini. Today we're accustomed to remembering the war through Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls and Robert Capa’s photographs. But Adam Hochschild has discovered some less familiar yet far more compelling characters who reveal the full tragedy and importance of the war: a fiery nineteen-year-old Kentucky woman who went to wartime Spain on her honeymoon, a Swarthmore College senior who was the first American casualty in the battle for Madrid, a pair of fiercely partisan, rivalrous New York Times reporters who covered the war from opposites sides, and a swashbuckling Texas oilman with Nazi sympathies who sold Franco almost all his oil — at reduced prices, and on credit. It was in many ways the opening battle of World War II, and we still have much to learn from it. Spain in Our Hearts is Adam Hochschild at his very best.
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Recommended by Jennifer M Harris.
Jennifer M Harris
He tells a somewhat untold story of the involvement of US corporations. [source]
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As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning
Laurie Lee
4.4
"I was nineteen years old, still soft at the edges, but with a confident belief in good fortune. I carried a small rolled-up tent, a violin in a blanket, a change of clothes, a tin of treacle biscuits, and some cheese. I was excited, vain-glorious, knowing I had far to go; but not, as yet, how far." Despite this romantic and optimistic opening, what Lee finds is the most primitive and feudal country in Europe, a peninsula untouched by the modern world, a land of labor without dignity, a church devoid of compassion, and a country ripe for revolutionary change.
There is humor, love, and adolescent awakening, but beneath is a foreboding sense of a savage future, a premonition that a war will come. For Lee, 1936 was the end of innocence, when "it was being learned again that men needed more than courage, anger, slogans, convictions, or even a just cause when they went to war." Thus Lee becomes entangled in the passionate, violent, and bloody struggle that was the Spanish Civil War.
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Recommended by Alastair Humphreys and Jason Webster.
Alastair Humphreys
Reading Laurie Lee was suddenly a very different perspective on adventure, because he was just a normal young guy. He was not very tough. He wasn’t very fit. He didn’t claim to be trying to do anything extraordinary. He was just out in the world, living vividly and being curious and I loved that, mostly because it sounded like me. Ever since I read As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning I thought I wanted to go and do the trip myself. [source]
Jason Webster
The best book in terms of engaging with this dreamy and poetic truth at the heart of Spain. [source]
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Driving Over Lemons: An Optimist in Andalucía
Chris Stewart
4.4
No sooner had Chris Stewart set eyes on El Valero than he handed over a check. Now all he had to do was explain to Ana, his wife, that they were the proud owners of an isolated sheep farm in the Alpujarra Mountains in Southern Spain. That was the easy part.
Lush with olive, lemon, and almond groves, the farm lacks a few essentials—running water, electricity, an access road. And then there's the problem of rapacious Pedro Romero, the previous owner who refuses to leave. A perpetual optimist, whose skill as a sheepshearer provides an ideal entrée into his new community, Stewart also possesses an unflappable spirit that, we soon learn, nothing can diminish. Wholly enchanted by the rugged terrain of the hillside and the people they meet along the way—among them farmers, including the ever-resourceful Domingo, other expatriates and artists—Chris and Ana Stewart build an enviable life, complete with a child and dogs, in a country far from home.
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15
The Story of Ferdinand
Munro Leaf and Robert Lawson
4.4
A true classic with a timeless message, The Story of Ferdinand has enchanted readers since it was first published in 1936. All the other bulls would run and jump and butt their heads together. But Ferdinand would rather sit and smell the flowers. And he does just that, until the day a bumblebee and some men from the Madrid bullfights give gentle Ferdinand a chance to be the most ferocious star of the corrida—and the most unexpected comic hero. This cherished hardcover is perfect for those who love Ferdinand, and those who have yet to meet him.
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The Fountains of Silence
Ruta Sepetys
4.4
A portrait of love, silence, and secrets under a Spanish dictatorship.
Madrid, 1957. Under the fascist dictatorship of General Francisco Franco, Spain is hiding a dark secret. Meanwhile, tourists and foreign businessmen flood into Spain under the welcoming promise of sunshine and wine. Among them is eighteen-year-old Daniel Matheson, the son of an oil tycoon, who arrives in Madrid with his parents hoping to connect with the country of his mother's birth through the lens of his camera. Photography--and fate--introduce him to Ana, whose family's interweaving obstacles reveal the lingering grasp of the Spanish Civil War--as well as chilling definitions of fortune and fear. Daniel's photographs leave him with uncomfortable questions amidst shadows of danger. He is backed into a corner of difficult decisions to protect those he loves. Lives and hearts collide, revealing an incredibly dark side to the sunny Spanish city.
Includes vintage media reports, oral history commentary, photos, and more.
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Winter in Madrid
C. J. Sansom
4.4
Fans of Carlos Ruiz Zafón’s The Shadow of the Wind and Sebastian Faulks’s Birdsong will fall in love with Winter in Madrid, the arresting new novel from C.J. Sansom. In September 1940, the Spanish Civil War is over and Madrid lies in ruins while the Germans continue their march through Europe. Britain stands alone as General Franco considers whether to abandon neutrality and enter the war.
Into this uncertain world comes Harry Brett, a privileged young man who was recently traumatized by his experience in Dunkirk and is now a reluctant spy for the British Secret Service. Sent to gain the confidence of Sandy Forsyth, an old school friend turned shadowy Madrid businessman, Brett finds himself involved in a dangerous game and surrounded by memories. Meanwhile, Sandy’s girlfriend, ex-Red Cross nurse Barbara Clare, is engaged in a secret mission of her own—to find her former lover Bernie Piper, whose passion for the Communist cause led him into the International Brigades and who vanished on the bloody battlefields of the Jarama.
In a vivid and haunting depiction of wartime Spain, Winter in Madrid is an intimate and riveting tale that offers a remarkable sense of history unfolding and the profound impact of impossible choices.
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18
Marina
Carlos Ruiz Zafon
4.4
Quince años mas tarde, la memoria de aquel dia ha vuelto a mi. He visto a aquel muchacho vagando entre las brumas de la estacion de Francia y el nombre de Marina se ha encendido de nuevo como una herida fresca. Todos tenemos un secreto encerrado bajo llave en el atico del alma. este es el mio.
En la Barcelona de 1980 Oscar Drai suena despierto, deslumbrado por los placeres mocernistas cercanos al internado en el que estudia. En una de sus escapadas conoce a Marina, una chica audaz que comparte con oscar la aventura de adentrarse en un enigma doloroso del pasado de la ciudad. Un misterioso personaje de la posguerra se propuso el mayor desafio imaginable, pero su ambicion lo arrastro por sendas siniestras cucyas consecuencias debe pagar alguien todavia hoy.
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19
El laberinto de los espíritus (El cementerio de los libros olvidados, #4)
Carlos Ruiz Zafón
4.3
"El laberinto de los espíritus", es el desenlace de la saga de "El cementerio de los libros olvidados" que se inició en 2001 con "La sombra del viento" y continuó en 2008 con "El juego del ángel" y en 2011 con "El prisionero del cielo".
Elevadas por la crítica internacional a la categoría de clásico contemporáneo, las novelas de "El cementerio de los libros olvidados" se han convertido en uno de los universos literarios más apasionantes del nuevo siglo, y Carlos Ruiz Zafón en el escritor español más leído en todo el mundo después de Cervantes.
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20
Isabella: The Warrior Queen
Kirstin Downey
4.3
An engrossing and revolutionary biography of Isabella of Castile, the controversial Queen of Spain who sponsored Christopher Columbus's journey to the New World, established the Spanish Inquisition, and became one of the most influential female rulers in history
Born at a time when Christianity was dying out and the Ottoman Empire was aggressively expanding, Isabella was inspired in her youth by tales of Joan of Arc, a devout young woman who unified her people and led them to victory against foreign invaders. In 1474, when most women were almost powerless, twenty-three-year-old Isabella defied a hostile brother and mercurial husband to seize control of Castile and León.
Her subsequent feats were legendary. She ended a twenty-four-generation struggle between Muslims and Christians, forcing Moorish invaders back over the Mediterranean Sea. She laid the foundation for a unified Spain. She sponsored Columbus's trip to the Indies and negotiated Spanish control over much of the New World with the help of Rodrigo Borgia, the infamous Pope Alexander VI. She also annihilated all who stood against her by establishing a bloody religious Inquisition that would darken Spain's reputation for centuries.
Whether saintly or satanic, no female leader has done more to shape our modern world, where millions of people in two hemispheres speak Spanish and practice Catholicism. Yet history has all but forgotten Isabella's influence, due to hundreds of years of misreporting that often attributed her accomplishments to Ferdinand, the bold and philandering husband she adored.
Using new scholarship, Downey's luminous biography tells the story of this brilliant, fervent, forgotten woman, the faith that propelled her through life, and the land of ancient conflicts and intrigue she brought under her command.
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The Last Queen
C. W. Gortner
4.3
Juana of Castile, the last queen of Spanish blood to inherit her country's throne, has been for centuries an enigmatic figure shrouded in lurid myth. Was she the bereft widow of legend who was driven mad by her loss, or has history misjudged a woman who was ahead of her time? In his stunning new novel, C. W. Gortner challenges the myths about Queen Juana, unraveling the mystery surrounding her to reveal a brave, determined woman we can only now begin to fully understand.
The third child of Queen Isabel and King Ferdinand of Spain, Juana is born amid her parents’ ruthless struggle to unify their kingdom, bearing witness to the fall of Granada and Columbus’s discoveries. At the age of sixteen, she is sent to wed Philip, the archduke of Flanders, as part of her parents’ strategy to strengthen Spain, just as her youngest sister, Catherine of Aragon, is sent to England to become the first wife of Henry VIII.
Juana finds unexpected love and passion with her handsome young husband, the sole heir to the Habsburg Empire. At first she is content with her children and her life in Flanders. But when tragedy strikes and she inherits the Spanish throne, Juana finds herself plunged into a battle for power against her husband that grows to involve the major monarchs of Europe. Besieged by foes on all sides, her intelligence and pride used as weapons against her, Juana vows to secure her crown and save Spain from ruin, even if it could cost her everything.
With brilliant, lyrical prose, novelist and historian C. W. Gortner conjures Juana through her own words, taking the reader from the somber majesty of Spain to the glittering and lethal courts of Flanders, France, and Tudor England. The Last Queen brings to life all the grandeur and drama of an incomparable era, and the singular humanity of this courageous, passionate princess whose fight to claim her birthright captivated the world.
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22
Origin (Robert Langdon, #5)
Dan Brown
4.3
Robert Langdon, Harvard professor of symbology and religious iconology, arrives at the ultramodern Guggenheim Museum Bilbao to attend a major announcement—the unveiling of a discovery that “will change the face of science forever.” The evening’s host is Edmond Kirsch, a forty-year-old billionaire and futurist whose dazzling high-tech inventions and audacious predictions have made him a renowned global figure. Kirsch, who was one of Langdon’s first students at Harvard two decades earlier, is about to reveal an astonishing breakthrough . . . one that will answer two of the fundamental questions of human existence. As the event begins, Langdon and several hundred guests find themselves captivated by an utterly original presentation, which Langdon realizes will be far more controversial than he ever imagined. But the meticulously orchestrated evening suddenly erupts into chaos, and Kirsch’s precious discovery teeters on the brink of being lost forever. Reeling and facing an imminent threat, Langdon is forced into a desperate bid to escape Bilbao. With him is Ambra Vidal, the elegant museum director who worked with Kirsch to stage the provocative event. Together they flee to Barcelona on a perilous quest to locate a cryptic password that will unlock Kirsch’s secret. Navigating the dark corridors of hidden history and extreme religion, Langdon and Vidal must evade a tormented enemy whose all-knowing power seems to emanate from Spain’s Royal Palace itself . . . and who will stop at nothing to silence Edmond Kirsch. On a trail marked by modern art and enigmatic symbols, Langdon and Vidal uncover clues that ultimately bring them face-to-face with Kirsch’s shocking discovery . . . and the breathtaking truth that has long eluded us. Origin is Dan Brown’s most brilliant and entertaining novel to date.
I just finished this book. I like the author. [source]
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23
The Battle for Spain: The Spanish Civil War 1936-1939
Antony Beevor
4.3
A fresh and acclaimed account of the Spanish Civil War by the bestselling author of Stalingrad and The Fall Of Berlin 1945
Beevor's Ardennes 1944: The Battle of the Bulge is now available from Viking Books
To mark the 70th anniversary of the Spanish Civil War's outbreak, Antony Beevor has written a completely updated and revised account of one of the most bitter and hard-fought wars of the twentieth century. With new material gleaned from the Russian archives and numerous other sources, this brisk and accessible book (Spain's #1 bestseller for twelve weeks), provides a balanced and penetrating perspective, explaining the tensions that led to this terrible overture to World War II and affording new insights into the war-its causes, course, and consequences.
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24
The Club Dumas
Arturo Perez-Reverte and Sonia Sot
4.3
Lucas Corso is a book detective, a middle-aged mercenary hired to hunt down rare editions for wealthy and unscrupulous clients. When a well-known bibliophile is found dead, leaving behind part of the original manuscript of Alexandre Dumas's The Three Musketeers, Corso is brought in to authenticate the fragment. He is soon drawn into a swirling plot involving devil worship, occult practices, and swashbuckling derring-do among a cast of characters bearing a suspicious resemblance to those of Dumas's masterpiece. Aided by a mysterious beauty named for a Conan Doyle heroine, Corso travels from Madrid to Toledo to Paris on the killer's trail in this twisty intellectual romp through the book world
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25
The Queen's Vow: A Novel of Isabella of Castile
C. W. Gortner, Rosalyn Landor, et al
4.3
No one believed I was destined for greatness.
So begins Isabella’s story, in this evocative, vividly imagined novel about one of history’s most famous and controversial queens—the warrior who united a fractured country, the champion of the faith whose reign gave rise to the Inquisition, and the visionary who sent Columbus to discover a New World. Acclaimed author C. W. Gortner envisages the turbulent early years of a woman whose mythic rise to power would go on to transform a monarchy, a nation, and the world.
Young Isabella is barely a teenager when she and her brother are taken from their mother’s home to live under the watchful eye of their half-brother, King Enrique, and his sultry, conniving queen. There, Isabella is thrust into danger when she becomes an unwitting pawn in a plot to dethrone Enrique. Suspected of treason and held captive, she treads a perilous path, torn between loyalties, until at age seventeen she suddenly finds herself heiress of Castile, the largest kingdom in Spain. Plunged into a deadly conflict to secure her crown, she is determined to wed the one man she loves yet who is forbidden to her—Fernando, prince of Aragon.
As they unite their two realms under “one crown, one country, one faith,” Isabella and Fernando face an impoverished Spain beset by enemies. With the future of her throne at stake, Isabella resists the zealous demands of the inquisitor Torquemada even as she is seduced by the dreams of an enigmatic navigator named Columbus. But when the Moors of the southern domain of Granada declare war, a violent, treacherous battle against an ancient adversary erupts, one that will test all of Isabella’s resolve, her courage, and her tenacious belief in her destiny.
From the glorious palaces of Segovia to the battlefields of Granada and the intrigue-laden gardens of Seville, The Queen’s Vow sweeps us into the tumultuous forging of a nation and the complex, fascinating heart of the woman who overcame all odds to become Isabella of Castile.
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26
The Ornament of the World: How Muslims, Jews, and Christians Created a Culture of Tolerance in Medieval Spain
Maria Rosa Menocal
4.3
Undoing the familiar notion of the Middle Ages as a period of religious persecution and intellectual stagnation, María Menocal now brings us a portrait of a medieval culture where literature, science, and tolerance flourished for 500 years.The story begins as a young prince in exile—the last heir to an Islamic dynasty—founds a new kingdom on the Iberian peninsula: al-Andalus. Combining the best of what Muslim, Jewish, and Christian cultures had to offer, al-Andalus and its successors influenced the rest of Europe in dramatic ways, from the death of liturgical Latin and the spread of secular poetry, to remarkable feats in architecture, science, and technology. The glory of the Andalusian kingdoms endured until the Renaissance, when Christian monarchs forcibly converted, executed, or expelled non-Catholics from Spain. In this wonderful book, we can finally explore the lost history whose legacy is still with us in countless ways.
Author Biography: María Rosa Menocal is R. Selden Rose Professor of Spanish and Portuguese and head of the Whitney Humanities Center at Yale University. She lives in New Haven, CT.
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Recommended by David Marquand.
David Marquand
This had a huge influence on me when I was researching my latest book. I think the biggest threat to the values of pluralist democracy in present day Europe is Islamophobia. There is a very serious danger that this will be to the 21st century what anti-semitism was to the last century. I don’t think it has done so yet, but it could. I found the Rosa Menocal book quite inspiring because of what it showed about the possibility of the Muslim, Christian and Jewish civilisations living together. They managed to co-exist peacefully and to learn from each other in the period that we think of as the Middle Ages or even the Dark Ages the eighth to 16th centuries. [source]
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27
Patria
Fernando Aramburu Irigoye
4.3
El día en que ETA anuncia el abandono de las armas, Bittori se dirige al cementerio para contarle a la tumba de su marido el Txato, asesinado por los terroristas, que ha decidido volver a la casa donde vivieron. ¿Podrá convivir con quienes la acosaron antes y después del atentado que trastocó su vida y la de su familia? ¿Podrá saber quién fue el encapuchado que un día lluvioso mató a su marido, cuando volvía de su empresa de transportes? Por más que llegue a escondidas, la presencia de Bittori alterará la falsa tranquilidad del pueblo, sobre todo de su vecina Miren, amiga íntima en otro tiempo, y madre de Joxe Mari, un terrorista encarcelado y sospechoso de los peores temores de Bittori. ¿Qué pasó entre esas dos mujeres? ¿Qué ha envenenado la vida de sus hijos y sus maridos tan unidos en el pasado? Con sus desgarros disimulados y sus convicciones inquebrantables, con sus heridas y sus valentías, la historia incandescente de sus vidas antes y después del cráter que fue la muerte del Txato, nos habla de la imposibilidad de olvidar y de la necesidad de perdón en una comunidad rota por el fanatismo político.
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28
The Basque History of the World: The Story of a Nation
Mark Kurlansky
4.2
From Mark Kurlansky, the bestselling author of Cod, Salt, and Birdseye—the illuminating story of an ancient and enigmatic people.
Straddling a small corner of Spain and France in a land that is marked on no maps except their own, the Basques are a puzzling contradiction—they are Europe's oldest nation without ever having been a country. No one has ever been able to determine their origins, and even the Basques' language, Euskera—the most ancient in Europe—is related to none other on earth. For centuries, their influence has been felt in nearly every realm, from religion to sports to commerce. Even today, the Basques are enjoying what may be the most important cultural renaissance in their long existence.
Mark Kurlansky's passion for the Basque people and his exuberant eye for detail shine throughout this fascinating book. Like Cod, The Basque History of the World,blends human stories with economic, political, literary, and culinary history into a rich and heroic tale.
Among the Basques' greatest accomplishments:
Exploration—the first man to circumnavigate the globe, Juan Sebastian de Elcano, was a Basque and the Basques were the second Europeans, after the Vikings, in North America Gastronomy and agriculture—they were the first Europeans to eat corn and chili peppers and cultivate tobacco, and were among the first to use chocolate Religion—Ignatius Loyola, a Basque, founded the Jesuit religious order Business and politics—they introduced capitalism and modern commercial banking to southern Europe Recreation—they invented beach resorts, jai alai, and racing regattas, and were the first Europeans to play sports with balls “A delectable portrait of an uncanny, indomitable nation.” –Newsday
“Exciting, Illuminating, and thought provoking.” –The Boston Globe
"Entertaining and instructive… [Kurlansky’s] approach is unorthodox, mixing history with anecdotes, poems with recipes.” –The New York Times Book Review
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29
A Heart So White
Javier Marías
4.2
Winner of the IMPAC Dublin Award, and widely considered Javier Marías's masterpiece, A Heart So White is a breathtaking novel about family secrets that chronicles the relentless power of the past.
Juan knows little of the interior life of his father Ranz; but when Juan marries, he begins to consider the past anew, and begins to ponder what he doesn't really want to know. Secrecy--its possible convenience, its price, and even its civility--hovers throughout the novel. A Heart So White becomes a sort of anti-detective story of human nature. Intrigue; the sins of the father; the fraudulent and the genuine; marriage and strange repetitions of violence: Marías elegantly sends shafts of inquisitory light into shadows and onto the costs of ambivalence.
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30
A Long Petal of the Sea
Isabel Allende
4.2
From the New York Times bestselling author of The House of the Spirits comes an epic novel spanning decades and crossing continents, following two young people as they flee the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War in search of a new place to call home.
In the late 1930s, civil war gripped Spain. When General Franco and his Fascists succeed in overthrowing the government, hundreds of thousands are forced to flee in a treacherous journey over the mountains to the French border. Among them is Roser, a pregnant young widow, who finds her life irreversibly intertwined with that of Victor Dalmau, an army doctor and the brother of her deceased love. In order to survive, the two must unite in a marriage neither of them wants, and together are sponsored by poet Pablo Neruda to embark on the SS Winnipeg along with 2,200 other refugees in search of a new life. As unlikely partners, they embrace exile and emigrate to Chile as the rest of Europe erupts in World War.
Starting over on a new continent, their trials are just beginning. Over the course of their lives, they will face test after test. But they will also find joy as they wait patiently for a day when they are exiles no more, and will find friends in the most unlikely of places. Through it all, it is that hope of being reunited with their home that keeps them going. And in the end, they will find that home might have been closer than they thought all along.
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31
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
4.2
The brilliant, bestselling, landmark novel that tells the story of the Buendia family, and chronicles the irreconcilable conflict between the desire for solitude and the need for love—in rich, imaginative prose that has come to define an entire genre known as "magical realism."
When asked what books he recommended to his 18-year-old daughter Malia, Obama gave the Times a list that included The Naked and the Dead and One Hundred Years of Solitude. “I think some of them were sort of the usual suspects … I think she hadn’t read yet. Then there were some books that are not on everybody’s reading list these days, but I remembered as being interesting.” Here’s what he included: The Naked and the Dead, Norman Mailer One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez The Golden Notebook, Doris Lessing The Woman Warrior, Maxine Hong Kingston [source]
Brace yourselves—One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez is as steamy, dense and sensual as the jungle that surrounds the surreal town of Macondo! [source]
Today is World Book Day, a wonderful opportunity to address this #ChallengeRichard sent in by Mike Gonzalez of New Jersey: Make a list of your top 65 books to read in a lifetime. [source]
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32
People of the Book
Geraldine Brooks
4.2
From the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of March, the journey of a rare illuminated manuscript through centuries of exile and war
In 1996, Hanna Heath, an Australian rare-book expert, is offered the job of a lifetime: analysis and conservation of the famed Sarajevo Haggadah, which has been rescued from Serb shelling during the Bosnian war. Priceless and beautiful, the book is one of the earliest Jewish volumes ever to be illuminated with images. When Hanna, a caustic loner with a passion for her work, discovers a series of tiny artifacts in its ancient binding—an insect wing fragment, wine stains, salt crystals, a white hair—she begins to unlock the book’s mysteries. The reader is ushered into an exquisitely detailed and atmospheric past, tracing the book’s journey from its salvation back to its creation.
In Bosnia during World War II, a Muslim risks his life to protect it from the Nazis. In the hedonistic salons of fin-de-siècle Vienna, the book becomes a pawn in the struggle against the city’s rising anti-Semitism. In inquisition-era Venice, a Catholic priest saves it from burning. In Barcelona in 1492, the scribe who wrote the text sees his family destroyed by the agonies of enforced exile. And in Seville in 1480, the reason for the Haggadah’s extraordinary illuminations is finally disclosed. Hanna’s investigation unexpectedly plunges her into the intrigues of fine art forgers and ultra-nationalist fanatics. Her experiences will test her belief in herself and the man she has come to love.
Inspired by a true story, People of the Book is at once a novel of sweeping historical grandeur and intimate emotional intensity, an ambitious, electrifying work by an acclaimed and beloved author.
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33
Soldados de Salamina
Javier Cercas
4.2
Un joven periodista topa por casualidad con una historia fascinante, y muy significativa, de la Guerra Civil española, y se propone reconstruirla. Cuando las tropas republicanas se retiran hacia la frontera francesa, camino del exilio, en el desorden de la desbandada alguien toma la decisión de fusilar a un grupo de presos franquistas. Entre ellos se halla Rafael Sánchez-Mazas, fundador e ideólogo de Falange, quizás uno de los responsables directos del conflicto fratricida. Pero Sánchez-Mazas no sólo logra escapar del fusilamiento colectivo, sino que, cuando los republicanos salen en su busca, un miliciano anónimo le encañona y en el último momento le perdona la vida. Su buena estrella le permitirá vivir emboscado hasta el final de la guerra, protegido por un grupo de campesinos de la región, aunque siempre recordará a aquel miliciano de extraña mirada que no lo delató. El narrador se propone desentrañar el secreto del enigmático Sánchez-Mazas, de su asombrosa aventura de guerra, pero sólo para acabar descubriendo, en un quiebro inesperado, que el significado de esta historia se encuentra donde menos podía esperarlo, porque uno no encuentra lo que busca, sino lo que la realidad le entrega .
Como insiste en afirmar el propio narrador, Soldados de Salamina es un relato real ; los lectores, sin embargo, lo leerán como un thriller: Cercas nos embarca en una investigación de hechos históricos que resulta apasionante porque su propósito es desentrañar un secreto que se resiste a ser desvelado, un secreto esencial que concierne no sólo a nuestro pasado más incómodo, sino sobre todo a la condición humana.
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La casa de Bernarda Alba
Federico Garcia Lorca
4.2
«La casa de Bernarda Alba» constituye un exponente más de la capacidad de Federico García Lorca para aunar la tradición y la vanguardia por medio de un teatro simbólico de índole muy personal que le sitúa entre los valores más destacados del canon internacional. El autor granadino continúa en el camino de la experimentación con temas, personajes y géneros de la tradición teatral, a los que presenta desde inusitadas perspectivas y filtra por el tamiz de unas modernas técnicas expresivas deudoras de las más renovadoras vanguardias del momento, junto con una profundización en las posibilidades connotativas de los símbolos. Esta nueva edición se basa en el autógrafo conservado en la Fundación Federico García Lorca.
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35
El Príncipe de la niebla
Carlos Ruiz Zafón
4.2
El nuevo hogar de los Carver está rodeado de misterio. En él aún se respira el espíritu de Jacob, el hijo de los antiguos propietarios, que murió ahogado. Las extrañas circunstancias de esa muerte sólo se empiezan a aclarar con la aparición de un diabólico personaje: el Príncipe de la Niebla, capaz de conceder cualquier deseo a una persona a un alto precio...
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36
Bodas de sangre
Federico Garcia Lorca, Allen Josephs, Juan Caballero
4.2
El tema de esta obra surgio a raiz de una noticia aparecida en prensa: dos amantes se fugan en la vispera de la boda de la mujer con otro hombre. Garia Lorca convierte la realidad en poesia. En su obra hay ansias de libertad, andalucismo, simbolismo y muerte, pero por encima de todo, poesia dramatica. Bodas de sangre es, pues, una obra teatral donde las desgarradas pasiones de sus protagonistas se desatan ante la atenta mirada de la luna, personificacion hermosa y terrible de la muerte.
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37
The Spanish Civil War
Hugh Thomas
4.2
Since its first publication, Hugh Thomas's The Spanish Civil War has become established as the definitive one-volume history of a conflict that continues to provoke intense controversy today.
What was it that roused left-wing sympathizers from all over the world to fight against Franco between 1936 and 1939? Why did the British and US governments refuse to intervene? And why did the Republican cause collapse so violently? Now revised and updated, Hugh Thomas's classic account presents the most objective and unbiased analysis of a passionate struggle where fascism and democracy, communism and Catholicism were at stake - and which was as much an international war as a Spanish one.
In my five choices I have included Helen Graham’s short, very precise and up-to-date scholarly essay on the war. So I thought that, given that these will be five books aimed at people starting to be interested in the Spanish Civil War or indeed people who we might want to get interested in the subject, it would be a good idea to have a big colourful account of the war. I was torn between Thomas’s book and Antony Beevor’s. Both books are very similar, both very lively and well written. But even though Thomas’s is a much older book I think it wins by a short head. [source]
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38
Nada
Carmen Laforet
4.2
Carmen Laforet’s Nada ranks among the most important literary works of post-Civil War Spain. Loosely based on the author’s own life, it is the story of an orphaned young woman who leaves her small town to attend university in war-ravaged Barcelona.
Residing amid genteel poverty in a mysterious house on Calle de Aribau, young Andrea falls in with a wealthy band of schoolmates who provide a rich counterpoint to the squalor of her home life. As experience overtakes innocence, Andrea gradually learns the disquieting truth about the people she shares her life with: her overbearing and superstitious aunt Angustias; her nihilistic yet artistically gifted uncle Román and his violent brother Juan; and Juan’s disturbingly beautiful wife, Gloria, who secretly supports the clan with her gambling. From existential crisis to a growing maturity and resolve, Andrea’s passionate inner journey leaves her wiser, stronger, and filled with hope for the future.
The incomparable Edith Grossman’s vital new translation captures the feverish energy of Laforet’s magnificent story, showcasing its dark, powerful imagery, and its subtle humor. And Mario Vargas Llosa’s Introduction illuminates Laforet’s brilliant depiction of life during the early days of the Franco regime. With crystalline insight into the human condition, Carmen Laforet’s classic novel stands poised to reclaim its place as one of the great novels of twentieth-century Europe.
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39
Niebla
Miguel De Unamuno, German Gullon
4.2
Esta obra de Miguel de Unamuno es uno de los ejemplos clásicos más eminentes de la novela moderna. La ficción deja aquí de ser un puro vehículo narrativo, transmisor de historias, para convertirse en un universo textual de fecundas sugerencias. El título, Niebla, expresa con claridad el propósito novelesco de desdibujar lo visible y materializar, en cambio, lo impalpable. En este ambiente vemos moverse a un hombre esencialmente frustrado, Augusto Pérez, sobre cuya muerte nos vemos obligados a pronunciarnos. Germán Gullón, reconocido como uno de los primeros especialistas en novela contemporánea, facilita en esta edición una pauta de lectura que conduce a una riqueza de comprensión insospechada de la novela en sí y de cuanto supone, como cima, en el proceso de la narrativa española.
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40
La vida es sueño
Pedro Calderon de la Barca, Ciraco Moron
4.2
He aquí la creación más lograda y de carácter más universal de Calderón. La vida es sueño es, en síntesis, la plasmación barroca de la idea de la fugacidad de la vida con todos los aditamentos geniales de construcción, caracteres y estilo que el autor supo imprimirle. Con este pesimismo radical sobre el valor de la vida humana se interfiere el libre albedrío como afirmación personal de Segismundo —“¿y teniendo yo más vida / tengo menos libertad?”—. Estos dos principios combinados crean una riqueza enorme de sentidos, que en esta edición son desmenuzados críticamente por Ciriaco Morón Arroyo.
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41
All This I Will Give to You
Dolores Redondo
4.2
The award-winning, international bestselling page-burner about the secrets and lies of one man that lead another into a treacherous house of strangers…
When novelist Manuel Ortigosa learns that his husband, Álvaro, has been killed in a car crash, it comes as a devastating shock. It won’t be the last. He’s now arrived in Galicia. It’s where Álvaro died. It’s where the case has already been quickly closed as a tragic accident. It’s also where Álvaro hid his secrets.
The man to whom Manuel was married for fifteen years was not the unassuming man he knew.
Álvaro’s trail leads Manuel deep into one of Spain’s most powerful and guarded families. Behind the walls of their forbidding estate, Manuel is nothing but an unwelcome and dangerous intruder. Then he finds two allies: a stubbornly suspicious police lieutenant and Álvaro’s old friend—and private confessor—from seminary school. Together they’re collecting the pieces of Álvaro’s past, his double life, and his mysterious death.
But in the shadows of nobility and privilege, Manuel is about to unravel a web of corruption and deception that could be as fatal a trap for him as it was for the man he loved.
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42
Tomorrow in the Battle Think on Me
Javier Marías, Javier Marias, Margaret Jull Costa
4.2
"No one ever suspects," begins Tomorrow in the Battle Think On Me, "that they might one day find themselves with a dead woman in their arms...." Marta has just met Victor when she invites him to dinner at her Madrid apartment while her husband is away on business. When her two-year-old son finally falls asleep, Marta and Victor retreat to the bedroom. Undressing, she suddenly feels ill; and in his arms, inexplicably, she dies.
What should Victor do? Remove the compromising tape from the phone machine? Leave food for the child, for breakfast? These are just his first steps, but he soon takes matters further; unable to bear the shadows and the unknowing, Victor plunges into dark waters. And Javier Marías, Europe's master of secrets, of what lies reveal and truth may conceal, is on sure ground in this profound, quirky, and marvelous novel. "Brilliantly imagined and hugely intricate," as La Vanguardia noted, "it is a novel one reads with enormous pleasure."
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43
The New Spaniards
John Hooper
4.2
A fully revised, expanded and updated edition of this masterly portrayal of contemporary Spain.
The restoration of democracy in 1977 heralded a period of intense change that continues today. Spain has become a land of extraordinary paradoxes in which traditional attitudes and contemporary preoccupations exist side by side. Focussing on issues which affect ordinary Spaniards, from housing to gambling, from changing sexual mores to rising crime rates. John Hooper's fascinating study brings to life the new Spain of the twenty-first century.
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44
The Muse
Jessie Burton
4.2
A picture hides a thousand words . . .
On a hot July day in 1967, Odelle Bastien climbs the stone steps of the Skelton gallery in London, knowing that her life is about to change forever. Having struggled to find her place in the city since she arrived from Trinidad five years ago, she has been offered a job as a typist under the tutelage of the glamorous and enigmatic Marjorie Quick. But though Quick takes Odelle into her confidence, and unlocks a potential she didn't know she had, she remains a mystery - no more so than when a lost masterpiece with a secret history is delivered to the gallery.
The truth about the painting lies in 1936 and a large house in rural Spain, where Olive Schloss, the daughter of a renowned art dealer, is harbouring ambitions of her own. Into this fragile paradise come artist and revolutionary Isaac Robles and his half-sister Teresa, who immediately insinuate themselves into the Schloss family, with explosive and devastating consequences . . .
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45
Captain Alatriste (Adventures of Captain Alatriste, #1)
Arturo Perez-Reverte, Margaret Sayers Peden
4.2
"It is the height of Spain's celebrated golden century - but beyond the walls of the Royal Palace there is little on the streets of Madrid that glitters. The Invincible Armada has been defeated. The shadow of the Inquisition looms large. And the Thirty Years' War rages on in Flanders. When a courageous soldier of this war, Captain Diego Alatriste, is forced to retire after being wounded in battle, he returns home to live the comparatively tame - though hardly quiet - life of a swordsman-for-hire. In this dangerous city where a thrust of steel settles all matters, there is no stronger blade than Alatriste's." The captain is approached with an offer of work that involves giving a scare to some strangers soon to arrive in Madrid. But on the night of the attack, it becomes clear that these aren't ordinary travelers - and that someone is out for their blood. What happens next is the first in a series of riveting twists, with implications that will reverberate throughout the courts of Europe
"No era el hombre más honesto ni el más piadoso, pero era un hombre valiente"... Con estas palabras empieza El capitán Alatriste, la historia de un soldado veterano de los tercios de Flandes que malvive como espadachín a sueldo en el Madrid del siglo XVII. Sus aventuras peligrosas y apasionantes nos sumergen sin aliento en las intrigas de la Corte de una España corrupta y en decadencia, las emboscadas en callejones oscuros entre el brillo de dos aceros, las tabernas donde Francisco de Quevedo compone sonetos entre pendencias y botellas de vino, o los corrales de comedias donde las representaciones de Lope de Vega terminan a cuchilladas. Todo ello de la mano de personajes entrañables o fascinantes: el joven Íñigo Balboa, el implacable inquisidor fray Emilio Bocanegra, el peligroso asesino Gualterio Malatesta, o el diabólico secretario del rey, Luis de Alquézar. Acción, historia y aventura se dan cita en estas páginas inolvidables.
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46
The Family of Pascual Duarte
Camilo Jose Cela, Anthony Kerrigan
4.2
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47
The Return
VICTORIA HISLOP
4.2
Beneath the majestic towers of the Alhambra, Granada's cobbled streets resonate with music and secrets. Sonia Cameron knows nothing of the city's shocking past; she is here to dance. But in a quiet café, a chance conversation and an intriguing collection of old photographs draw her into the extraordinary tale of Spain's devastating civil war.
Seventy years earlier, the café is home to the close-knit Ramírez family. In 1936, an army coup led by Franco shatters the country's fragile peace, and in the heart of Granada the family witnesses the worst atrocities of conflict. Divided by politics and tragedy, everyone must take a side, fighting a personal battle as Spain rips itself apart.
Captivating and deeply moving, Victoria Hislop's second novel is as inspiring as her international bestselling debut, The Island.
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48
Tales of the Alhambra
Irving Washington
4.2
Tales of the Alhambra is a collection of essays, verbal sketches, and stories by Washington Irving.
Shortly after completing a biography of Christopher Columbus in 1828, Washington Irving traveled from Madrid, where he had been staying, to Granada, Spain. At first sight, he described it as "a most picturesque and beautiful city, situated in one of the loveliest landscapes that I have ever seen." Irving was preparing a book called A Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada, a history of the years 1478–1492, and was continuing his research on the topic. He immediately asked the then-governor of the historic Alhambra Palace as well as the archbishop of Granada for access to the palace, which was granted because of Irving's celebrity status. Aided by a 17-year old guide named Mateo Ximenes, Irving was inspired by his experience to write Tales of the Alhambra. Throughout his trip, he filled his notebooks and journals with descriptions and observations though he did not believe his writing would ever do it justice. He wrote, "How unworthy is my scribbling of the place." Irving continued to travel through Spain until he was appointed as secretary of legation at the United States Embassy in London, serving under the incoming minister Louis McLane. He arrived in London by late September 1829.
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49
Guernica
Dave Boling
4.2
An extraordinary epic of love, family and war set in the Basque town of Guernica before, during, and after its destruction by the German Luftwaffe during the Spanish Civil War.
Calling to mind such timeless war-and-love classics as Corelli's Mandolin and The English Patient, Guernica is a transporting novel that thrums with the power of storytelling and is peopled with characters driven by grit and heart.
In 1935, Miguel Navarro finds himself in conflict with the Spanish Civil Guard, and flees the Basque fishing village of Lekeitio to make a new start in Guernica, the center of Basque culture and tradition. In the midst of this isolated bastion of democratic values, Miguel finds more than a new life— he finds someone to live for. Miren Ansotegui is a charismatic and graceful dancer who has her pick of the bachelors in Guernica, but focuses only on the charming and mysterious Miguel. The two discover a love that war and tragedy can not destroy.
History and fiction merge seamlessly in this beautiful novel about the resilience of family, love, and tradition in the face of hardship. The bombing of Guernica was a devastating experiment in total warfare by the German Luftwaffe in the run-up to World War II. For Basques, it was an attack on the soul of their ancient nation; for the world, it was an unprecedented crime against humanity. In his first novel, Boling reintroduces the event and paints his own picture of a people so strong, vibrant, and proud that they are willing to do whatever it takes to protect their values, their country, and their loved ones.
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50
The Constant Princess (The Plantagenet and Tudor Novels, #6)
Philippa Gregory
4.2
Splendid and sumptuous historical novel from the internationally bestselling author, Philippa Gregory, telling of the early life of Katherine of Aragon.
We think of Katherine of Aragon as the barren wife of a notorious king; but behind this legacy lies a fascinating story.
Katherine of Aragon is born Catalina, the Spanish Infanta, to parents who are both rulers and warriors. Aged four, she is betrothed to Arthur, Prince of Wales, and is raised to be Queen of England. She is never in doubt that it is her destiny to rule that far-off, wet, cold land.
Her faith is tested when her prospective father-in-law greets her arrival in her new country with a great insult; Arthur seems little better than a boy; the food is strange and the customs coarse. Slowly she adapts to the first Tudor court, and life as Arthur’s wife grows ever more bearable.
But when the studious young man dies, she is left to make her own future: how can she now be queen, and found a dynasty? Only by marrying Arthur’s young brother, the sunny but spoilt Henry. His father and grandmother are against it; her powerful parents prove little use. Yet Katherine is her mother’s daughter and her fighting spirit is strong.
She will do anything to achieve her aim; even if it means telling the greatest lie, and holding to it.
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51
Barcelona
Robert Hughes
4.1
Barcelona is Robert Hughes's monumentally informed and irresistibly opinionated guide to the most un-Spanish city in Spain. Hughes scrolls through Barcelona's often violent history; tells the stories of its kings, poets, magnates, and revolutionaries; and ushers readers through municipal landmarks that range from Antoni Gaudi's sublimely surreal cathedral to a postmodern restaurant with a glass-walled urinal. The result is a work filled with the attributes of Barcelona itself: proportion, humor, and seny -- the Catalan word for triumphant common sense.
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52
Fodor's Essential Spain 2020
Fodor's Travel Guides
4.1
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53
The Fencing Master
Arturo Perez-Reverte
4.1
In Madrid in 1868, fencing master and man of honor Don Jaime is approached by a mysterious woman who seeks to learn the unstoppable thrust, an arcane technique known only to him. All too soon he finds himself in the vortex of a plot that includes seduction, secret political documents, and more than one murder. Rich with historical detail of a decaying world that agonizes - as does the art of fencing itself - over the ideals of honor and chivalry, The Fencing Master is superb literature and a true page-turner.
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54
La colmena
Cela, Camilo Jose, Camilo José Cela
4.1
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55
Los enamoramientos
Javier Marías
4.1
«La última vez que vi a Miguel Desvern o Deverne fue también la última que lo vio su mujer, Luisa, lo cual no dejó de ser extraño y quizá injusto, ya que ella era eso, su mujer, y yo era en cambio una desconocida...»
Así comienza Los enamoramientos, la nueva novela de Javier Marías, consagrado como uno de los mejores novelistas contemporáneos. María Dolz, la narradora y protagonista, sólo supo su nombre «cuando apareció su foto en el periódico, apuñalado y medio descamisado y a punto de convertirse en un muerto: lo último de lo que se debió de dar cuenta fue de que lo acuchillaban por confusión y sin causa».
Con una prosa profunda y cautivadora, esta novela reflexiona sobre el estado de enamoramiento, considerado casi universalmente como algo positivo e incluso redentor a veces, tanto que parece justificar casi todas las cosas: las acciones nobles y desinteresadas, pero también los mayores desmanes y ruindades.
Los enamoramientos es también un libro sobre la impunidad y sobre la horrible fuerza de los hechos; sobre la inconveniencia de que los muertos pudieran volver, por mucho que se los haya llorado y que en apariencia nada se deseara tanto como su regreso, o al menos que siguieran vivos; también sobre la imposibilidad de saber nunca la verdad cabalmente, ni siquiera la de nuestro pensamiento, oscilante y variable siempre.
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56
Queen of the South
Arturo Perez-Reverte
4.1
Alternate cover edition can be found here.
Teresa Mendoza's boyfriend is a drug smuggler who the narcos of Sinaloa, Mexico, call "the king of the short runway," because he can get a plane full of coke off the ground in three hundred yards. But in a ruthless business, life can be short, and Teresa even has a special cell phone that Guero gave her along with a dark warning. If that phone rings, it means he's dead, and she'd better run, because they're coming for her next.
Then the call comes.
In order to survive, she will have to say goodbye to the old Teresa, an innocent girl who once entrusted her life to a pinche narco smuggler. She will have to find inside herself a woman who is tough enough to inhabit a world as ugly and dangerous as that of the narcos-a woman she never before knew existed. Indeed, the woman who emerges will surprise even those who know her legend, that of the Queen of the South.
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57
Death in the Afternoon
Ernest Hemingway
4.1
Still considered one of the best books ever written about bullfighting, "Death in the Afternoon" is an impassioned look at the sport by one of its true aficionados. It reflects Hemingway's conviction that bullfighting was more than mere sport and reveals a rich source of inspiration for his art. The unrivaled drama of bullfighting, with its rigorous combination of athleticism and artistry, and its requisite display of grace under pressure, ignited Hemingway's imagination. Here he describes and explains the technical aspects of this dangerous ritual and "the emotional and spiritual intensity and pure classic beauty that can be produced by a man, an animal, and a piece of scarlet serge draped on a stick." Seen through his eyes, bullfighting becomes a richly choreographed ballet, with performers who range from awkward amateurs to masters of great elegance and cunning.
A fascinating look at the history and grandeur of bullfighting, "Death in the Afternoon" is also a deeper contemplation of the nature of cowardice and bravery, sport and tragedy, and is enlivened throughout by Hemingway's sharp commentary on life and literature.
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58
The Paris Wife
Paula McLain
4.1
A deeply evocative story of ambition and betrayal, The Paris Wife captures a remarkable period of time and a love affair between two unforgettable people: Ernest Hemingway and his wife Hadley.
Chicago, 1920: Hadley Richardson is a quiet twenty-eight-year-old who has all but given up on love and happiness—until she meets Ernest Hemingway and her life changes forever. Following a whirlwind courtship and wedding, the pair set sail for Paris, where they become the golden couple in a lively and volatile group—the fabled “Lost Generation”—that includes Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, and F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald.
Though deeply in love, the Hemingways are ill prepared for the hard-drinking and fast-living life of Jazz Age Paris, which hardly values traditional notions of family and monogamy. Surrounded by beautiful women and competing egos, Ernest struggles to find the voice that will earn him a place in history, pouring all the richness and intensity of his life with Hadley and their circle of friends into the novel that will become The Sun Also Rises. Hadley, meanwhile, strives to hold on to her sense of self as the demands of life with Ernest grow costly and her roles as wife, friend, and muse become more challenging. Despite their extraordinary bond, they eventually find themselves facing the ultimate crisis of their marriage—a deception that will lead to the unraveling of everything they’ve fought so hard for.
A heartbreaking portrayal of love and torn loyalty, The Paris Wife is all the more poignant because we know that, in the end, Hemingway wrote that he would rather have died than fallen in love with anyone but Hadley.
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Recommended by Wai Chee Dimock.
Wai Chee Dimock
This book is told in the first person, in the voice of Hadley. In that way it’s a good complement to Monique Truong’s book, which is told in the voice of the cook. Paula McLain did a good job in terms of historical research, and in fleshing out Hadley’s psychology. [source]
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59
Bartleby & Co.
Enrique Vila-Matas, Jonathan Dunne
4.1
In Bartleby Co., an enormously enjoyable novel, Enrique Vila-Matas tackles the theme of silence in literature: the writers and non-writers who, like the scrivener Bartleby of the Herman Melville story, in answer to any question or demand, replies: "I would prefer not to." Addressing such "artists of refusal" as Robert Walser, Robert Musil, Arthur Rimbaud, Marcel Duchamp, Herman Melville, and J. D. Salinger, Bartleby Co. could be described as a meditation: a walking tour through the annals of literature. Written as a series of footnotes (a non-work itself), Bartleby embarks on such questions as why do we write, why do we exist? The answer lies in the novel itself: told from the point of view of a hermetic hunchback who has no luck with women, and is himself unable to write, Bartleby is an utterly engaging work of profound and philosophical beauty.
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60
Life of Pi
Yann Martel
4.1
Yann Martel's imaginative and unforgettable Life of Pi is a magical reading experience, an endless blue expanse of storytelling about adventure, survival, and ultimately, faith. The precocious son of a zookeeper, 16-year-old Pi Patel is raised in Pondicherry, India, where he tries on various faiths for size, attracting "religions the way a dog attracts fleas." Planning a move to Canada, his father packs up the family and their menagerie and they hitch a ride on an enormous freighter. After a harrowing shipwreck, Pi finds himself adrift in the Pacific Ocean, trapped on a 26-foot lifeboat with a wounded zebra, a spotted hyena, a seasick orangutan, and a 450-pound Bengal tiger named Richard Parker ("His head was the size and color of the lifebuoy, with teeth"). It sounds like a colorful setup, but these wild beasts don't burst into song as if co-starring in an anthropomorphized Disney feature. After much gore and infighting, Pi and Richard Parker remain the boat's sole passengers, drifting for 227 days through shark-infested waters while fighting hunger, the elements, and an overactive imagination. In rich, hallucinatory passages, Pi recounts the harrowing journey as the days blur together, elegantly cataloging the endless passage of time and his struggles to survive: "It is pointless to say that this or that night was the worst of my life. I have so many bad nights to choose from that I've made none the champion."
The protagonist Piscine "Pi" Molitor Patel, an Indian boy from Pondicherry, explores the issues of religion and spirituality from an early age and survives 227 days shipwrecked in the Pacific Ocean.
Barcelona, early 1930s: Natalia, a pretty shop-girl from the working-class quarter of Gracia, is hesitant when a stranger asks her to dance at the fiesta in Diamond Square. But Joe is charming and forceful, and she takes his hand. They marry and soon have two children; for Natalia it is an awakening, both good and bad. When Joe decides to breed pigeons, the birds delight his son and daughter - and infuriate his wife. Then the Spanish Civil War erupts, and lays waste to the city and to their simple existence. Natalia remains in Barcelona, struggling to feed her family, while Joe goes to fight the fascists, and one by one his beloved birds fly away. A highly acclaimed classic that has been translated into more than twenty languages, In Diamond Square is the moving, vivid and powerful story of a woman caught up in a convulsive period of history.
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62
With the Fire on High
Elizabeth Acevedo
4.1
From the New York Times bestselling author of the National Book Award longlist title The Poet X comes a dazzling novel in prose about a girl with talent, pride, and a drive to feed the soul that keeps her fire burning bright.
Ever since she got pregnant freshman year, Emoni Santiago’s life has been about making the tough decisions—doing what has to be done for her daughter and her abuela. The one place she can let all that go is in the kitchen, where she adds a little something magical to everything she cooks, turning her food into straight-up goodness.
Even though she dreams of working as a chef after she graduates, Emoni knows that it’s not worth her time to pursue the impossible. Yet despite the rules she thinks she has to play by, once Emoni starts cooking, her only choice is to let her talent break free.
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Recommended by Mary Burkey.
Mary Burkey
Both With the Fire on High and The Poet X are just spectacular listening for teens. Elizabeth is a performance artist, she writes in verse, she’s the whole deal. [source]
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63
The Flanders Panel
Arturo Perez-Reverte, Margaret Jull Costa
4.1
While restoring a 15th-century painting which depicts a chess game between the Duke of Flanders and his knight, Julia, a young art expert, discovers a hidden inscription in the corner: Quis Necavit Equitem. Translation: Who killed the knight? Breaking the silence of five centuries, Julia's hunt for a Renaissance murderer leads her into a modern-day game of sin, betrayal, and death.
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64
South from Granada: A Sojourn in Southern Spain
Gerald Brenan, Chris Fortunato
4.1
An amusing and insightful account of Spanish village life from a brilliant interpreter of Spain to the rest of the world (The Times).
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65
All Souls
Deborah Harknes
4.1
At High Table in an Oxford college, the pretty young tutor Clare Bayes attracted all eyes, not least to her fetching décollettage. No one's eyes were sharper, however, than those of the visiting Spanish lecturer, invited as a guest on this occasion, and eventually the two young people were lovers, unbeknown to Clare's husband. And if the Spaniard was at pains to cover their tracks, his beloved left evidence of adultery with gay abandon - and all this in a university that was a forcing house of gossip and intrigue, a place where "at every word a reputation dies".
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66
The Selected Poems
Federico Garcia Lorca, Donald Merriam Allen, W. S. Merwin
4.1
The Selected Poems of Federico García Lorca has introduced generations of readers to mesmerizing poetry since 1955. Lorca (1898-1937) is admired all over the world for the lyricism, immediacy and clarity of his poetry, as well as for his ability to encompass techniques of the symbolist movement with deeper psychological shadings. But Lorca's poems are, most of all, admired for their beauty. Undercurrents of his major influences--Spanish folk traditions from his native Andalusia and Granada, gypsy ballads, and his friends the surrealists Salvador Dali and Luis Bunuel--stream throughout Lorca's work. Poets represented here as translators are as diverse as Stephen Spender, Langston Hughes, Ben Belitt, William Jay Smith, and W.S. Merwin.
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67
The Snow Gypsy
Lindsay Jayne Ashford, Heather Wilds
4.1
From the bestselling author of The Woman on the Orient Express comes a haunting novel of two women—one determined to uncover the past and the other determined to escape it.
At the close of World War II, London is in ruins and Rose Daniel isn’t at peace. Eight years ago, her brother disappeared while fighting alongside Gypsy partisans in Spain. From his letters, Rose has just two clues to his whereabouts—his descriptions of the spectacular south slopes of the Sierra Nevada and his love for a woman who was carrying his child.
In Spain, it has been eight years since Lola Aragon’s family was massacred. Eight years since she rescued a newborn girl from the arms of her dying mother and ran for her life. She has always believed that nothing could make her return…until a plea for help comes from a desperate stranger.
Now, Rose, Lola, and the child set out on a journey from the wild marshes of the Camargue to the dazzling peaks of Spain’s ancient mountain communities. As they come face-to-face with war’s darkest truths, their lives will be changed forever by memories, secrets, and friendships.
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68
Rick Steves Spain 2020
Rick Steves
4.1
Savor authentic paella, run with the bulls in Pamplona, or relax on Barcelona's beaches: experience Spain with Rick Steves! Inside Rick Steves Spain 2020 you'll find:
Comprehensive coverage for planning a multi-week trip to Spain
Rick's strategic advice on how to get the most out of your time and money, with rankings of his must-see favorites
Top sights and hidden gems, from El Escorial and the great mosque of Córdoba to medieval bars serving house-made madroño liqueur
How to connect with local culture: Enjoy a flamenco show in Madrid, chat with fans about the latest fútbol match, or meander down winding streets in search of the best tapas
Beat the crowds, skip the lines, and avoid tourist traps with Rick's candid, humorous insight
The best places to eat, sleep, and relax with a glass of sangria
Self-guided walking tours of lively neighborhoods and incredible museums
Vital trip-planning tools, like how to link destinations, build your itinerary, and get from place to place
Detailed maps, plus a fold-out map for exploring on the go
Useful resources including a packing list, Spanish phrase book, a historical overview, and recommended reading
Over 1,000 bible-thin pages include everything worth seeing without weighing you down
Annually updated information on Barcelona, Basque Country, Bilbao, Santiago de Compostela, León, Salamanca, Madrid, El Escorial, the Valley of the Fallen, Segovia, Toledo, Granada, Sevilla, Córdoba, Andalucía, Spain's Southern Coast, Gibraltar, Morocco, and more Make the most of every day and every dollar with Rick Steves Spain 2020. Planning a one- to two-week trip? Check out Rick Steves Best of Spain.
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69
La reina descalza
Ildefonso Falcone
4.1
En la España del siglo XVIII, una conmovedora historia de amistad, pasión y venganza une dos voces de mujer en un canto desgarrado por la libertad.
«Canta hasta que la boca te sepa a sangre…» En enero de 1748, una mujer negra deambula por las calles de Sevilla. Atrás ha dejado un pasado esclavo en la lejana Cuba, el hijo al que nunca volverá a ver y un largo viaje en barco hasta las costas españolas. Caridad ya no tiene un amo que le dé órdenes, pero tampoco un lugar donde cobijarse cuando se cruza en su camino Milagros Carmona, una joven gitana de Triana por cuyas venas corre la sangre de la rebeldía y el arte de los de su raza. Las dos mujeres se convierten en inseparables y, entre zarabandas y fandangos, la gitana confiesa a su nueva amiga su amor por el apuesto y arrogante Pedro García, de quien la separan antiguos odios entre ambas familias. Por su parte, Caridad se esfuerza por acallar el sentimiento que está naciendo en su corazón hacia Melchor Vega, el abuelo de Milagros, un hombre desafiante, bribón y seductor aunque también firme defensor del honor y la lealtad para con los suyos. Pero cuando un mandato real convierte a todos los gitanos en proscritos, la vida de Milagros y Caridad da un trágico vuelco. Aunque sus caminos se separan, el destino volverá a unirlas en un Madrid donde confluyen contrabandistas y cómicos, nobles y villanos; un Madrid que se rinde a la pasión que emana de las voces y bailes de esa raza de príncipes descalzos. Ildefonso Falcones nos propone un viaje a una época apasionante, teñida por los prejuicios y la intolerancia. Desde Sevilla hasta Madrid, desde el tumultuoso bullicio de la gitanería hasta los teatros señoriales de la capital, los lectores disfrutarán de un fresco histórico poblado por personajes que viven, aman, sufren y pelean por lo que creen justo. Fiel reflejo de unos hombres y mujeres que no agacharon la cabeza y que alzaron la voz para enfrentarse al orden establecido.
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70
The Seville Communion
Arturo Perez-Reverte, Sonia Soto
4.1
Her name is Our Lady of the Tears. She's a small, crumbling Baroque church in the heart of Seville, Spain. And at least one person -- a computer hacker nicknamed Vespers -- believes that she kills to defend herself. In Arturo Perez-Reverte's stylish and entertaining The Seville Communion, Rome sends handsome Father Lorenzo Quart to investigate. He meets a feisty parish priest, a beautiful aristocrat, an ambitious banker, and three of the most touching, wonderfully ineffectual crooks to ever dabble in a life of crime. There are mysteries as well, from another death at the church to the secrets of the human heart. -- Nancy Pate
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71
Romancero gitano
Federico Garcia Lorca
4.1
El "Romancero gitano" difunde el nombre de su autor por todo el ámbito de la literatura de nuestra lengua. Aclara el poeta que "aunque se llama gitano, es el poema de Andalucía porque el gitano es lo más elevado, lo más profundo, lo más aristocrático, lo más representativo de su modo y el que guarda el ascua, la sangre y el alfabeto de la verdad andaluza y universal".
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72
The Last Jew
Noah Gordon
4.0
In the year 1492, the Inquisition has all of Spain in its grip. After centuries of pogrom-like riots encouraged by the Church, the Jews - who have been an important part of Spanish life since the days of the Romans - are expelled from the country by royal edict. Many who wish to remain are intimidated by Church and Crown and become Catholics, but several hundred thousand choose to retain their religion and depart; given little time to flee, some perish even before they can escape from Spain.
Yonah Toledano, the 15-year-old son of a celebrated Spanish silversmith, has seen his father and brother die during these terrible days - victims whose murders go almost unnoticed in a time of mass upheaval. Trapped in Spain by circumstances, he is determined to honor the memory of his family by remaining a Jew.
On a donkey named Moise, Yonah begins a meandering journey, a young fugitive zigzagging across the vastness of Spain. Toiling at manual labor, he desperately tries to cling to his memories of a vanished culture. As a lonely shepherd on a mountaintop he hurls snatches of almost forgotten Hebrew at the stars, as an apprentice armorer he learns to fight like a Christian knight. Finally, as a man living in a time and land where danger from the Inquisition is everywhere, he deals with the questions that mark his past. How he discovers the answers, how he finds his way to a singular and strong Marrano woman, how he achieves a life with the outer persona of a respected Old Christian physician and the inner life of a secret Jew, is the fabric of this novel. The Last Jew is a glimpse of the past, an authentic tale of high adventure, and a tender and unforgettable love story. In it, Noah Gordon utilizes his greatest strengths, and the result is remarkable and moving.
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73
Moon Camino de Santiago: St. Jean Pied de Port to Santiago de Compostela, Muxía & Finisterre
Beebe Bahrami
4.0
Over 1,200 years old, 500 miles long, and rich with tradition and sacred history: Embark on the trip of a lifetime with Moon Camino de Santiago. Inside you'll find: Strategic trekking guides for walking the Camino, including the entire route in 40 days, and excursions to gateway cities like Santiago, Léon, Pamplona, Biarritz, and more
Unique ideas for enriching your experience: Admire folkloric art and Romanesque cathedral paintings, and stroll through the stone archways and winding alleys of medieval cities. Soak up the mountain views as you cross over the Pyrenees and descend into misty green valleys. Enjoy authentic local jamón Serrano, tapas, and Galician wine, see the archaeological site where Europe's oldest humans were uncovered, and breathe in the salty ocean air as you finish your journey at the shores of the Atlantic
The best detours, festivals, and villages along the way: Linger in Estella, witness the running of the bulls in Pamplona, visit the monastery in Nájera, sip wine in Cacabelos, or sample artisanal cheese in Arzúa
Essential planning information on when to go, how to get there, where to eat, and where to stay, from pilgrim dorms to private hotels, plus tips on hazards, precautions, and gear
Valuable insight on the history and context of the pilgrimage from Camino expert Beebe Bahrami, who has walked it every year since 2001 Full-color photos and detailed maps throughout, plus a handy fold-out map of the entire route
Thorough background information on the landscape, wildlife, plants, culture, history, and local etiquette
Handy tools including Spanish and French phrasebooks, visa information, volunteer opportunities, and tips for seniors, families with children, women traveling alone, religious and secular travelers, and LGBTQ+ travelers With Moon Camino de Santiago's expert insight, unique suggestions, and practical advice, you can forge your own path.
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74
Leaving the Atocha Station
Ben Lerner
4.0
Adam Gordon is a brilliant, if highly unreliable, young American poet on a prestigious fellowship in Madrid, struggling to establish his sense of self and his relationship to art. What is actual when our experiences are mediated by language, technology, medication, and the arts? Is poetry an essential art form, or merely a screen for the reader's projections? Instead of following the dictates of his fellowship, Adam’s "research" becomes a meditation on the possibility of the genuine in the arts and beyond: are his relationships with the people he meets in Spain as fraudulent as he fears his poems are? A witness to the 2004 Madrid train bombings and their aftermath, does he participate in historic events or merely watch them pass him by?
In prose that veers between the comic and tragic, the self-contemptuous and the inspired, Leaving the Atocha Station is a portrait of the artist as a young man in an age of Google searches, pharmaceuticals, and spectacle.
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75
Fever and Spear (Your Face Tomorrow, #1)
Javier Marías, Margaret Jull Costa
4.0
Part spy novel, part romance, part Henry James, Your Face Tomorrow is a wholly remarkable display of the immense writing gifts of Javier Marias. With Fever and Spear, Volume One of his unfolding novel Your Face Tomorrow, he returns us to the rarified world of Oxford (the delightful setting of All Souls and Dark Back of Time), while introducing us to territory entirely new--espionage. Our hero, Jaime Deza, separated from his wife in Madrid, is a bit adrift in London until his old friend Sir Peter Wheeler retired Oxford don and semi-retired master spy recruits him for a new career in British Intelligence. Deza possesses a rare gift for seeing behind the masks people wear. He is soon observing interviews conducted by Her Majesty's secret service: variously shady international businessmen one day, would-be coup leaders the next. Seductively, this metaphysical thriller explores past, present, and future in the ever-more-perilous 21st century. This compelling and enigmatic tour de force from one of Europe's greatest writers continues with Volume Two, Dance and Dream."
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76
The Monk
Matthew Lewis, Christopher MacLachlan
4.0
'He now saw himself stained with the most loathed and monstrous sins, the object of universal execration ... doomed to perish in tortures the most severe'
Shocking, erotic and violent, The Monk is the story of Ambrosio, torn between his spiritual vows and the temptations of physical pleasure. His internal battle leads to sexual obsession, rape and murder, yet this book also contains knowing parody of its own excesses as well as social comedy. Written by Matthew Lewis when he was only nineteen, it was a ground-breaking novel in the Gothic Horror genre and spawned hundreds of imitators, drawn in by its mixture of bloodshed, sex and scandal.
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77
The Spanish Holocaust: Inquisition and Extermination in Twentieth-Century Spain
Paul Preston
4.0
The remains of General Francisco Franco lie in an immense mausoleum near Madrid, built with the blood and sweat of twenty thousand slave laborers. His enemies, however, met less-exalted fates. Besides those killed on the battlefield, tens of thousands were officially executed between 1936 and 1945, and as many again became "non-persons." As Spain finally reclaims its historical memory, a full picture can now be given of the Spanish Holocaust-ranging from judicial murders to the abuse of women and children. The story of the victims of Franco's reign of terror is framed by the activities of four key men-General Mola, Quiepo de Llano, Major Vallejo Najera, and Captain Don Gonzalo Aguilera-whose dogma of eugenics, terrorization, domination, and mind control horrifyingly mirror the fascism of Italy and Germany.
Evoking such classics as Gulag and The Great Terror, The Spanish Holocaust sheds crucial light on one of the darkest and most unexamined eras of modern European history.
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78
Spanish Phrase Book: 2500 Super Helpful Phrases and Words You’ll Want for Your Trip to Spain or South America
Simple Language Learning
4.0
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79
The Invisible Guardian
Dolores Redondo
4.0
Already a #1 international bestseller, this tautly written and gripping psychological thriller forces a police inspector to reluctantly return to her hometown in Basque Country—a place engulfed in mythology and superstition—to solve a series of eerie murders. When the naked body of a teenage girl is found on a riverbank in Basque Country, Spain, homicide inspector Amaia Salazar must return to the hometown she always sought to escape. A dark secret from Amaia’s past plagues her with nightmares, and as her investigation deepens, the old pagan beliefs of the community threaten to derail her astute detective work. The lines between mythology and reality begin to blur, and Amaia must discover whether the crimes are the work of a ritualistic killer or of a mythical creature known as the Basajaun, the Invisible Guardian. Torn between the rational procedures of her job and the local superstitions of a region shaped by the Spanish Inquisition, Amaia fights against the demons of her past in order to track down a killer on the run.
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80
La mano de Fátima
Ildefonso Falcones
4.0
La apasionante historia de un joven atrapado entre dos religiones y dos amores, en busca de su libertad y la de su pueblo
España, segunda mitad del siglo XVI: hace más de medio siglo que ha desaparecido el último reino musulmán de la península, el de Granada. Los musulmanes, cuya presencia tenía ochocientos años de antigüedad, se ven convertidos en una minoría oprimida económicamente y humillada en sus costumbres y religión, que incluso son obligados a abandonar.
Hartos de tanta injusticia, los moriscos, que es como se llamaba a los musulmanes españoles, se alzan en los montes de Granada contra los cristianos y emprenden una lucha desigual. Entre los sublevados está Hernando, hijo de una morisca y del sacerdote que la había violado; ello hace que sea rechazado, tanto por los suyos debido a su origen, como por los cristianos, por la cultura y costumbres de su madre. Hernando busca libertad y respeto, pero se encuentra con la brutalidad de unos y otros. También descubre el amor, en la persona de la valerosa Fátima, la de los hermosos ojos negros.
Tras la derrota de la insurrección, Hernando es deportado a la ciudad de Córdoba, la hermosa ciudad que aún conserva el legado de su pasado árabe. En ella Hernando intenta comenzar una nueva vida, que será una nueva etapa en la lucha por la tolerancia y la concordia entre las dos culturas.
El autor de La catedral del marvuelve con una trepidante novela con las mismas claves que llevaron al éxito a la primera: fidelidad histórica entrecruzada con un conmovedor relato de amor y odio, de ilusiones perdidas y esperanzas que dan sentido a la vida y la lanzan por los caminos de la aventura.
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81
Sister Queens: The Noble, Tragic Lives of Katherine of Aragon and Juana, Queen of Castile
Julia Fox
4.0
The history books have cast Katherine of Aragon, the first queen of King Henry VIII of England, as the ultimate symbol of the Betrayed Woman, cruelly tossed aside in favor of her husband’s seductive mistress, Anne Boleyn. Katherine’s sister, Juana of Castile, wife of Philip of Burgundy and mother of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, is portrayed as “Juana the Mad,” whose erratic behavior included keeping her beloved late husband’s coffin beside her for years.
But historian Julia Fox, whose previous work painted an unprecedented portrait of Jane Boleyn, Anne’s sister, offers deeper insight in this first dual biography of Katherine and Juana, the daughters of Spain’s Ferdinand and Isabella, whose family ties remained strong despite their separation. Looking through the lens of their Spanish origins, Fox reveals these queens as flesh-and-blood women—equipped with character, intelligence, and conviction—who are worthy historical figures in their own right.
When they were young, Juana’s and Katherine’s futures appeared promising. They had secured politically advantageous marriages, but their dreams of love and power quickly dissolved, and the unions for which they’d spent their whole lives preparing were fraught with duplicity and betrayal. Juana, the elder sister, unexpectedly became Spain’s sovereign, but her authority was continually usurped, first by her husband and later by her son. Katherine, a young widow after the death of Prince Arthur of Wales, soon remarried his doting brother Henry and later became a key figure in a drama that altered England’s religious landscape.
Ousted from the positions of power and influence they had been groomed for and separated from their children, Katherine and Juana each turned to their rich and abiding faith and deep personal belief in their family’s dynastic legacy to cope with their enduring hardships.
Sister Queens is a gripping tale of love, duty, and sacrifice—a remarkable reflection on the conflict between ambition and loyalty during an age when the greatest sin, it seems, was to have been born a woman.
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82
Iberia
James A. Michener, Robert Vavra
4.0
Here, in the fresh, vivid prose that is James Michener's trademark, is the real Spain as he experiences it. He not only reveals the celebrated Spain of bullfights and warror kings, painters and processions, cathedrals and olive orchards; he also shares the intimate, often hidden Spain he has come to know, where toiling peasants and their honest food, the salt of the shores and the oranges of the inland fields, the congeniality of living souls and the dark weight of history conspire to create a wild, contradictory, passionately beautiful land, the mystery called Iberia.
"Massive, beautiful...Unquestionably some of the best writing on Spain...The best that Mr. Michener has ever done on any subject...Stunning...Memorable." THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
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83
Purity of Blood (Adventures of Captain Alatriste, #2)
Arturo Perez-Reverte, Margaret Sayers Peden
4.0
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84
Sleeping Beauties
Jo Spain
4.0
The inspector frowned and examined the earth under the trees. As he scanned the glade, his stomach lurched. One, two, three, four. Five, counting the mound of earth disturbed under the tent. Somebody had cleared the earth of its natural layer and sown their own flowers
In five places
Five graves
A young woman, Fiona Holland, has gone missing from a small Irish village. A search is mounted, but there are whispers. Fiona had a wild reputation. Was she abducted, or has she run away?
A week later, a gruesome discovery is made in the woods at Ireland's most scenic beauty spot - the valley of Glendalough. The bodies are all young women who disappeared in recent years. D.I. Tom Reynolds and his team are faced with the toughest case of their careers - a serial killer, who hunts vulnerable women, and holds his victims captive before he ends their lives.
Soon the race is on to find Fiona Holland before it's too late. . .
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85
Incantation
Alice Hoffman
4.0
From a New York Times bestselling author comes a journey of loss and rebirth with a startling premise inspired by historical fact. Estrella is a Marrano: one of the Spanish Jews living double lives when those who refused conversion risked everything. Estrella's discovery that her family secretly practices the ancient way of wisdom known as kabbalah leads her to her true self and true love-but also to a devastating confrontation with unimaginable evil, unleashed by the betrayal of a friend. With themes of faith, friendship, and persecution, Alice Hoffman's tragic and beautiful novel resonates profoundly in our times.
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86
La Celestina
Fernando de Rojas, Patricia S. Finch
4.0
La loca pasión por Melibea, hija de un rico mercader, lleva al joven Calisto a romper todas las barreras morales y a aliarse con una vieja alcahueta y hechicera, Celestina. El amor es, pues, una pasión que lo mueve todo. Los señores aman según los cánones del amor cortés, y los criados se mueven en el inframundo de los prostíbulos, pero tanto unos como otros sienten el gozo y placer de vivir, y este amor lujurioso los conducirá a todos a la destrucción y a la muerte. Reflejo de una sociedad conflictiva, La Celestina, obra a caballo entre la novela y la obra dramática, abre las puertas a nuevos aires y tiempos nuevos, y su autor, Fernando de Rojas, crea con ella uno de los grandes mitos de la literatura universal.
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87
A Parrot in the Pepper Tree
Chris Stewart
4.0
Chris Stewart's "Driving Over Lemons" told the story of his move to a remote mountain farm in Las Alpujarras, an oddball region of Spain, south of Granada. Funny, insightful and real, the book became an international bestseller.
This sequel follows the lives of Chris, Ana and their daughter, Chloe, as they get to grips with a misanthropic parrot who joins their home, Spanish school life, neighbours in love, their amazement at Chris appearing on the bestseller lists ... and their shock at discovering that their beloved valley is once more under threat of a dam.
A Parrot in the Pepper Tree also looks back on Chris Stewart's former life - the hard times shearing in midwinter Sweden (and driving across the frozen sea to reach island farms); his first taste of Spain, learning flamenco guitar as a 20-year old; and his illustrious music career, drumming for his school band Genesis (sacked at 17, he never quite became Phil Collins), and then for a circus.
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88
Poema de mio Cid
Anonymous
4.0
Poema épico, se trata del texto más representativo del arte de los juglares españoles de la Edad Media. El poema fue probablemente compuesto entre 1110-1140, no mucho después de los hechos a los que se refiere. El poema, dividido en tres partes o cantares, narra el destierro y las aventuras del Cid, Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar. El tema del deshonor y la recuperación de la honra constituyen el eje central de la obra, que describe la mentalidad y los valores éticos de la época. Muchos de los personajes y hechos que muestra están atestiguados, lo cual le confiere un gran valor histórico.
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89
Lonely Planet Spain
Lonely Planet, Gregor Clark, et al.
4.0
Lonely Planet: The world's number one travel guide publisher*
Lonely Planet's Spain is your passport to the most relevant, up-to-date advice on what to see and skip, and what hidden discoveries await you. Marvel at Modernista masterpieces in Barcelona, enjoy beachside Basque cuisine in San Sebastian, and taste sherry and flamenco in Andalucia - all with your trusted travel companion. Get to the heart of Spain and begin your journey now!
Inside Lonely Planet's Spain:
Colour maps and images throughout Highlights and itineraries help you tailor your trip to your personal needs and interests Insider tips to save time and money and get around like a local, avoiding crowds and trouble spots Essential info at your fingertips - hours of operation, phone numbers, websites, transit tips, prices Honest reviews for all budgets - eating, sleeping, sightseeing, going out, shopping, hidden gems that most guidebooks miss Cultural insights provide a richer, more rewarding travel experience - covering history, people, music, landscapes, wildlife, cuisine, politics Covers Madrid, Barcelona, Granada, Valencia, Seville, Bilbao, Toledo, Santiago de Compostela, Castilla y Leon, Castilla-La Mancha, Catalonia, Aragon, Basque Country, Cantabria, Asturias, Extremadura, Andalucia, Murcia and more. The Perfect Choice: Lonely Planet's Spain is our most comprehensive guide to Spain, and is designed to immerse you in the culture and help you discover the best sights and get off the beaten track.
Looking for destination highlights? Check out Pocket Barcelona; Madrid; Valencia; Bilbao & San Sebastian or Ibiza, our handy-sized guides focused on the best sights and experiences for a short trip or weekend away.
About Lonely Planet: Lonely Planet is a leading travel media company and the world's number one travel guidebook brand, providing both inspiring and trustworthy information for every kind of traveller since 1973. Over the past four decades, we've printed over 145 million guidebooks and grown a dedicated, passionate global community of travellers. You'll also find our content online, and in mobile apps, video, 14 languages, nine international magazines, armchair and lifestyle books, ebooks, and more.
'Lonely Planet guides are, quite simply, like no other.' - New York Times
'Lonely Planet. It's on everyone's bookshelves, it's in every traveller's hands. It's on mobile phones. It's on the Internet. It's everywhere, and it's telling entire generations of people how to travel the world.' - Fairfax Media (Australia)
*Source: Nielsen BookScan: Australia, UK, USA, 5/2016-4/2017
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90
Fortunata and Jacinta
Benito Pérez Galdós
4.0
Capturing a ninteenth-century Spanish world of political tumult and personal obsession, Benito Pérez Galdós's Fortunata and Jacinta tells of two women who love the same man unfailingly—one as his mistress, the other as his wife.
In this new and complete translation, Agnes Moncy Gullón presents the detailed realism, the diversity of character and scene that have placed Fortunata and Jacinta alongside the voluminous works of Charles Dickens and Honoré de Balzac. Galdós's Madrid, recast from his youthful wanderings through the city's slums and cafés, includes the egg sellers and faded bullfighters surrounding Fortunata as well as the quieter, sequestered milieu of Jacinta's upbringing. Through Juanito, the lover of both women, the writer reveals Spain as a variegated fabric of delicate traditions and established vices, of shaky politics and rich intrigue. In this vast and colorful world, resonant of Dickens's London and Balzac's France, Galdós presents his characters with a depth, ambiguity, and humor born of the multiplicity of his scene.
Galdós's novels enjoyed, for a time, a wide and attentive readership in Spain. As his reputation grew, however, hostility toward his achievements, envy of his success, and political squabbling hampered his progress, stalling his election to the Royal Academy and, in 1912, thoroughly derailing his nomination as Spain's candidate for the Nobel Prize.
Though the political controversies that surrounded Galdós's works have long been calmed, this translation by Agnes Moncy Gullón brings alive the tempestuous era in which he lived and wrote, allowing English readers to hear the percussive yet often melodic tones of nineteenth-century Madrid in the correct and casual speech of Jacinta, in the pretty but empty words of Juanito, and in the painfully proper, sometimes vulgar language of Fortunata.
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91
The Sisterhood
Helen Bryan
4.0
Menina Walker was a child of fortune. Rescued after a hurricane in South America, doomed to a life of poverty with a swallow medal as her only legacy, the orphaned toddler was adopted by an American family and taken to a new life. As a beautiful, intelligent woman of nineteen, she is in love, engaged, and excited about the future — until another traumatic event shatters her dreams. Menina flees to Spain to bury her misery in research for her college thesis about a sixteenth-century artist who signed his works with the image of a swallow — the same image as the one on Menina’s medal. But a mugging strands Menina in a musty, isolated Spanish convent. Exploring her surroundings, she discovers the epic sagas of five orphan girls who were hidden from the Spanish Inquisition and received help escaping to the New World. Is Menina’s medal a link to them, or to her own past? Did coincidence lead her to the convent, or fate? Both love story and historical thriller, The Sisterhood is an emotionally charged ride across continents and centuries.
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92
Imperial Spain, 1469 - 1716
J. H. Elliott
4.0
The story of Spain's rise to greatness from its humble beginnings as one of the poorest and most marginal of European countries is a remarkable and dramatic one. With the marriage of Ferdinand & Isabella, the final expulsion of the Moslems and the discovery of America, Spain took on a seemingly unstoppable dynamism that made it into the world's first global power. This amazing success however created many powerful enemies and Elliott's famous book charts the dramatic fall of Habsburg Spain with the same elan as it charts the rise.
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93
Love and Ruin
Paula McLain
4.0
The bestselling author of The Paris Wife returns to the subject of Ernest Hemingway in a novel about his passionate, stormy marriage to Martha Gellhorn—a fiercely independent, ambitious young woman who would become one of the greatest war correspondents of the twentieth century
In 1937, twenty-eight-year-old Martha travels alone to Madrid to report on the atrocities of the Spanish Civil War and becomes drawn to the stories of ordinary people caught in devastating conflict. She also finds herself unexpectedly—and uncontrollably—falling in love with Hemingway, a man already on his way to becoming a legend. In the shadow of the impending Second World War, and set against the tumultuous backdrops of Madrid, Finland, China, Key West, and especially Cuba, where Martha and Ernest make their home, their relationship and professional careers ignite. But when Ernest publishes the biggest literary success of his career, For Whom the Bell Tolls, they are no longer equals, and Martha must make a choice: surrender to the confining demands of being a famous man's wife or risk losing Ernest by forging a path as her own woman and writer. It is a dilemma that will force her to break his heart, and her own.
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94
Jo confesso
Jaume Cabré
4.0
Si la botiga d'antiguitats de la família és tot un univers per al petit Adrià, el despatx del seu pare és el centre d'aquest univers, i el tresor més preuat de tots és un magnífic violí del segle XVIII al voltant del qual giren moltes històries d'aquesta novel·la de novel·les. Jo confesso és una llarga carta d'amor d'algú que ha hagut de jugar sol durant molts anys, entre llibres vells i secrets inconfessats; d'algú que ha estimat de manera incondicional; d'algú que se sent culpable d'una mort violenta, i d'algú que no entén el mal que recorre la història d'Occident.
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95
The Conquest of New Spain
Bernal Diaz Del Castillo
4.0
Vivid and absorbing, this is a first-person account of one of the most startling military episodes in history: the overthrow of Montezuma’s Aztec empire by the ruthless Hernan Cortes and his band of adventurers. Bernal Díaz del Castillo, himself a soldier under Cortes, presents a fascinatingly detailed description of the Spanish landing in Mexico in 1520, their amazement at the city, the exploitation of the natives for gold and other treasures, the expulsion and flight of the Spaniards, their regrouping and eventual capture of the Aztec capital. The Conquest of New Spain has a compelling immediacy that brings the past to life and offers a unique eyewitness view of the conquest of one of the greatest civilizations in the New World.
J. M. Cohen’s clear, fluent translation is supplemented by an introduction that illuminates the life and memories of Bernal Díaz and explores changing views of the conquest, and there are also maps of the conquered territory.
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96
The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue (Montague Siblings, #1)
Mackenzi Lee
4.0
A hilarious and swashbuckling teen historical fiction novel, named one of summer's 20 must-read books by Entertainment Weekly! A New York Times bestseller!
A young bisexual British lord embarks on an unforgettable Grand Tour of Europe with his best friend/secret crush. An 18th-century romantic adventure for the modern age written by This Monstrous Thing author Mackenzi Lee—Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda meets the 1700s.
Henry “Monty” Montague doesn’t care that his roguish passions are far from suitable for the gentleman he was born to be. But as Monty embarks on his grand tour of Europe, his quests for pleasure and vice are in danger of coming to an end. Not only does his father expect him to take over the family’s estate upon his return, but Monty is also nursing an impossible crush on his best friend and traveling companion, Percy.
So Monty vows to make this yearlong escapade one last hedonistic hurrah and flirt with Percy from Paris to Rome. But when one of Monty’s reckless decisions turns their trip abroad into a harrowing manhunt, it calls into question everything he knows, including his relationship with the boy he adores.
Witty, dazzling, and intriguing at every turn, The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue is an irresistible romp that explores the undeniably fine lines between friendship and love.
5 starred reviews and #1 pick on the summer 2017 Kids’ Indie Next List!
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97
The Rose of Fire (The Cemetery of Forgotten Books, #2.5)
Shawn Royal
4.0
Set at the time of the Spanish Inquisition in the fifteenth century, “Rose of Fire” tells the story of the origins of the mysterious labyrinthine library, the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, which lies at the heart of Carlos Ruiz Zafón’s novels The Shadow of the Wind, The Angel’s Game, and now The Prisoner of Heaven.
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98
The Spanish Civil War: A Very Short Introduction
Helen Graham
4.0
Amid the many catastrophes of the twentieth century, the Spanish Civil War continues to exert a particular fascination among history buffs and the lay-reader alike. This Very Short Introduction integrates the political, social and cultural history of the Spanish Civil War. It sets out the domestic and international context of the war for a general readership. In addition to tracing the course of war, the book locates the war's origins in the cumulative social and cultural anxieties provoked by a process of rapid, uneven and accelerating modernism taking place all over Europe. This shared context is key to the continued sense of the war's importance. The book also examines the myriad of political polemics to which the war has given rise, as well as all of the latest historical debates. It assesses the impact of the war on Spain's transition to democracy and on the country's contemporary political culture.
About the Series: Combining authority with wit, accessibility, and style, Very Short Introductions offer an introduction to some of life's most interesting topics. Written by experts for the newcomer, they demonstrate the finest contemporary thinking about the central problems and issues in hundreds of key topics, from philosophy to Freud, quantum theory to Islam.
I think Helen Graham is probably the most profound historian writing about the Spanish Civil War in the English language. This little book, an Oxford University Press paperback, which is a short introduction, is a remarkable work in that in a very short space she manages to deal with everything. Despite spending 40 years researching this subject myself, I found that it just glitters with insights. It gave me angles on things that I hadn’t necessarily thought about before and yet is still a very good book to read if you are an absolute beginner on the subject. [source]
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99
Rick Steves Best of Spain
Rick Steves
4.0
Hit Spain's can't-miss art, sights, and bites in two weeks or less with Rick Steves Best of Spain!
Strategic advice from Rick Steves on what's worth your time and money
Short itineraries covering Barcelona, Madrid, Toledo, Granada, Andalucía's White Hill Towns, and Sevilla
Rick's tips for beating the crowds, skipping lines, and avoiding tourist traps
The best of local culture, flavors, and haunts, including insightful walks through museums, historic sights, and atmospheric neighborhoods
Trip planning strategies like how to link destinations and design your itinerary, what to pack, where to stay, and how to get around
Over 400 full-color pages with detailed maps and vibrant photos throughout
Suggestions for side trips to Montserrat and Figueres, Basque Country, Santiago de Compostela, El Escorial, Segovia, Salamanca, Córdoba, and Spain's South Coast Experience Spain's old world romance and new world excitement for yourself with Rick Steves Best of Spain! Planning a longer trip? Rick Steves Spain 2020 is the classic, in-depth guide to exploring the country, updated annually.
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100
Hot Milk
Deborah Levy
4.0
Sofia, a young anthropologist, has spent much of her life trying to solve the mystery of her mother's unexplainable illness. She's frustrated with Rose and her constant complaints but utterly relieved to be called to abandon her own disappointing fledgling adult life. She and Rose travel to the searing, arid coast of southern Spain to see a famous consultant, Dr. Gomez—their very last chance—in the hope that he might cure Rose's unpredictable limb paralysis, but Dr. Gomez has strange methods that seem to have little to do with physical medicine, and as the treatment progresses, Rose's illness becomes increasingly baffling. Sofia's role as detective—tracking Rose's symptoms in an attempt to find the secret motivation for her pain—deepens as she discovers her own desires in this transient desert community.
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Recommended by Emma Watson.
