It’s a rare book that when I get to the end I read it all again, but this is what happened with The Time In Between by María Dueñas. When I read the last sentence, without so much as getting up for a cup of coffee, I went right back to the beginning and started in all over again with the first sentence. I wasn’t ready to let the characters go. I wanted to hear their stories again and again. I wanted to be in Sira’s world once again. I wanted to learn more about that time in our world’s history which I knew so little about.

I probably would never have picked this novel up were it not for the fact that it was a selection for my bookclub. Not even out of the box and it had three strikes against it as far as I was concerned. First of all, I normally don’t like to read translated works. Part of the author’s job is to create worlds of words, which may (or may not) be lost in translation. I want to read what the author actually wrote. I want to note subtlely of phrase. I want to immerse myself in the author’s words as much as the story. And this book is translated from the Spanish.

Secondly, the length of the book would have totally put me off, and this one is long - 600 pages they say, although in my case it’s hard to tell since I read it on a Kobo.

And thirdly I’m usually not a great fan of historical fiction.

The Time In Between is a novel about the Spanish Civil war which dovetailed itself into the WWII. It’s not a part of history that I know much about or had studied for more than a sentence or two in my school history classes. But it is a fascinating part of our world’s culture and history. It’s worth knowing about. It’s worth learning. I found out, for example, that the Fasicsts from Germany were helping to supply arms and intelligence to the Nationalists in Spain while the Russia supplied intel and arms to the Republicans there. One extreme to the other, while the country and its people were in turmoil.

Main character Sira Quiroga begins as a somewhat selfish but beautiful young woman who works with her mother as a seamstress in Madrid. She ends up running away with a very handsome man, who ends up double-crossing her, stealing from her and leaving her with a huge hotel bill. From there she must work her way back, pay back her debts and rebuild her life. The backdrop to this love betrayal is the war, which is escalating on all fronts in Europe, including Spain.

Here’s how The Time In Between begins:

–A typewriter shattered my destiny.–

And yes, if it wasn’t for the typewriter, Sira would never have met the lover who wooed her away from her “safe” fiance, thus setting into motion the entire rest of the book, including her foray into espionage.

In some editions, this book is entitled The Seamstress and sewing and fashion are the threads that run through this book.

Why is it important to read books like this, yes, even though I am reluctant to admit it—books wihich have been translated? It opens up a whole new realm of understanding for us. We get a peek into a different culture, to find a new way of thinking, a new way of feeling.

We are seeing first hand in our world what xenophobia does - when we constantly look at people as "other" and different. It’s done to us, and by us. When we constantly look at the numbers of walls we can build around ourselves, rather than the bridges of understanding, when we want to to fortress ourselves rather than tables of understanding, we are sure to shatter.

I believe it is important to look back, to never remove the ravages of war from our collective memories. The telling of war stories should never end, until maybe one day when we'll "get" it.