The Return by Victoria Hislop – first published in 2008
I really enjoyed The Island by Victoria Hislop and so was looking forward to her new novel. This one is mainly set in Spain at the time of the Civil War in the 1930s but starts and ends in the present day. Sonia and her friend go on holiday to Grenada to learn to dance Flamenco but Sonia is also looking for the roots of her mother, who was Spanish but who had told her very little about her past. She meets an old man called Miguel who runs a café and he tells her about the Ramirez family who used to own it and what happened to them all during the Civil War. Mercedes was the only daughter of the family and she lived to dance. She fell in love with a guitarist called Javier but lost touch with him in the turmoil of the Civil War. I didn't think this was as good as The Island but it is nevertheless well worth reading as it brings this period of Spanish history to life. I never realised how brutal the Spanish Civil War was or what the aftermath was like for those who lost the war. 7/10
1st June 2010
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