The Sleeping World: A Novel

by Gabrielle Lucille Fuentes

In this “astonishing and haunting debut” ( Publishers Weekly ), a young woman searching for her lost brother is willing to risk everything amidst the riots, protests, and uprisings of post-Franco Spain.

Spain, 1977. Military rule is over. Bootleg punk music oozes out of illegal basement bars, uprisings spread across towns, fascists fight anarchists for political control, and students perform protest art in the city center, rioting against the old government, the undecided new order, against the universities, against themselves…

Mosca is an intelligent, disillusioned university student, whose younger brother is among the “disappeared,” taken by the police two years ago, now presumed dead. Spurred by the turmoil around them, Mosca and her friends commit an act that carries their rebellion too far and sends them spiraling out of their provincial hometown. But the further they go, the more Mosca believes her brother is alive and the more she is willing to do to find him.

The Sleeping World is a “searing, beautifully written” (Cristina Garcia, author of Dreaming in Cuban ) and daring novel about youth, freedom, and our most visceral to keep our loved ones safe.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Spain, Literary Fiction, Historical, European History

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2016

About the author

Gabrielle Lucille Fuentes is a writer and teacher. Her first novel, The Sleeping World, will be published by Simon & Schuster (Touchstone) in 2016. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in One Story, Slice, Pank, The Collagist, Tweed’s, NANO Fiction, Western Humanities Review, The Yoke, SpringGun, and elsewhere.

Gabrielle Lucille Fuentes grew up in Wisconsin and has lived in Spain and France. She holds a BA from Brown University, an MFA from the University of Colorado, Boulder and is currently pursuing a PHD at the University of Georgia.

Reviews

[Liviu · Rating 4 out of 5]

last year on publication I opened it on general principles and it started really great and I couldn't put it down for its first 100 pages or so but then it petered out and I lost interest and just read the ending; I tried it again recently as I thought it would improve (in the sense of my opinion of the book will improve) with time and for once I read it end to end, though the promise of the early pages still doesn't quite fulfill till the end

[Gina · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book!!!! A wild, increasingly-strange-as-it-goes, sorrowful, intense, brilliant read. There are no easy answers in this book, and its lyricism and dark dreaminess appear when least expected, reeling you in again and again. By the end I was racing through the pages– it's taut but also haunting, delicious.

[Crystal King · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gorgeous dark prose punctuates every passage of this book, set in 1970s Spain. Fuentes perfectly captures the idealistic yet aimless sense of early adulthood as the four main characters make their way across Spain and into France, searching for a sense of meaning. University student Mosca is the only one that has a true purpose, to find her missing brother Alexis. His memory haunts her every move, underlying all her decisions. It's a timely novel, a warning for us about the very real dangers of fascism. A beautiful and moving debut.

[Aisling · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the second book in a row I have read where the writing is great but the plot is meh. Fuentes is one of the most poetic and lyrical writers I have read. Some of her sentences are breathtaking. But the plot involves several college aged students (which--ok, they are supposed to be self centered and disengaged but I really did not care about any of them and actively sort of disliked most) who are both on the run and searching for something. The book just doesn't go anywhere (Not literally. Literally there's rather too much travel and wandering.) The final few chapters (all of which start with the same sentence) are masterful though and brought me back from not caring. This is the writer's debut novel and it will be interesting to see her next. Should you read this book? If you like writing about turmoil, revolutions, poetic language and beautiful imagery, yes. If you want a well crafted plot, no.

[Bandit · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book's premise has originally intrigued me, but apparently not enough and it ended up sitting around on my kindle until now. And having read it, it's probably safe to say maybe it should have been left alone. This isn't to say it's a terrible book, far from it, there are some nice passages and I think the author did a terrific job of conveying the anarchistic zeitgeist of the post Franco Spain of the late 1970s. It's just that aside from the well described chaos, the story was much too thin for the page count and the characters just weren't interesting enough to substantiate the plot. Maybe it would have more appeal to a younger reader, someone for whom punk movement has some relevance. There's obviously an audience for this book, even New York Times gave it a favorable write up, it just really didn't work for me. Pages turned, but words didn't engage. In a way it reminded me of Flamethrowers, another well received book set in the 70s that despite able writing and striking cover didn't wow at all. Although this one was mercifully briefer. Thanks Netgalley.

[L · Rating 5 out of 5]

Spain in the '70's. Franco is dead. The danger is still very present. Family members and other loved ones have been disappeared. One young woman, Mosca, has lost her parents and her brother Alexi; there are no bodies, of course. This book follows her and a handful of friends, who have been more or less involved in resistance & protest, as she searches for her brother.

It was hard to get into this incredible book. These are young people who have nothing and no future. They have nowhere to go. To say they are living on the edge is an understatement. They are sought by police. They go hungry--very hungry, at points, skin and bones. They are cold. Because they push each other away, they are often alone even when together. They don't communicate much amongst themselves or with others. Mosca, in particular, does not always seem to be in the world. This makes it hard to get an empathetic bead on them. It takes patience and effort, both of which are rewarded.

This is an incredibly powerful tale. It is, of course, although fiction, true. That makes it painful to read, very painful. Do it anyhow. Because this is an important book. It speaks to the dangers of fascism, of unchecked power, not only at the time, but for the future.

The end is not what you might expect. It is perfect. It breathes hope.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks to Touchstone Books for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review!

I will always love a good historical fiction book. Throw in post-Franco Spain, and this is one I'm definitely interested in! One of my majors in college was Spanish and the history always fascinated me, mainly because it's something we don't typically learn about (or at least go in depth). THE SLEEPING WORLD by Gabrielle Lucille Fuentes is a fantastic and immersive debut about the post-Franco Spain culture and the effects of the war.

Not only do the readers dive into the protests, the violence, and resistance in this post war time in Spain, but we get to follow the journey of one girl who is trying to find her brother. Mosca is a university student and her younger brother, Alexi, is among the "disappeared". He was taken two years prior and all of those who were "disappeared" were all considered dead. Mosca and her friends get caught up in the turmoil and rebellions happening that they commit an act that carries things too far. Now they must flee their hometown - but the more they travel, Mosca gets more hope that her brother is still alive. How far will she go to save him?

Fuentes does a phenomenal job setting the scene. We have characters that are well-developed and complex. The descriptions in this story are detailed and you get a real sense of being in this 1970's post-Franco Spain. You do get more history and background on this time, but nothing too much to where it can lose some readers. It did have a slower build in the beginning, but then you are completely sucked in! It's haunting and dark, but so beautifully written.

If you are a fan of historical fiction, then I'd highly recommend grabbing a copy of THE SLEEPING WORLD. If you're wanting to learn a little more about the history and culture of other countries in war-stricken periods, then I'd say this is one you need to read about the post-Franco years.

I give this one a solid 4/5 stars!

[exorcismemily · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Sleeping World was different than what I expected, and I enjoyed it. Both the story and characters were multi-layered, and I was engrossed in the world shared by Fuentes. I suppose this book falls under historical fiction, which is not my favorite genre, but I liked this one.

The tense air of the novel's society was especially relevant to me right now - they are in the middle of changes, and our main characters are young, involved, and ready to make mistakes and sacrifices. I think they are about 18ish, and less than 10 years older than them, but I can still feel how young they are in the choices they make.

You are immediately thrown into the novel in the beginning. There are minor introductions, but the characters bring you along on their travels without wasting any time. I appreciated how quickly the novel moved. I finished it in 3 days, so it wasn't anything crazy.

Thank you to Touchstone Books & Gabrielle Lucille Fuentes for my copy of this book!!

[Hester Young · Rating 5 out of 5]

THE SLEEPING WORLD is truly luminous IF you can read and enjoy it for what it is. To say that the book is about punk university students attempting to resist fascism in 1977 post-Franco Spain sounds deceptively concrete. For me, the book was less about plot than impressions, moods, imagery, and gorgeous language. It was less about characters than history, themes, and haunting questions. In the final third of the book, there is a sense of dreaminess, a feeling of entering a subconscious realm. I admired the poetic language and the way the author explores the collective psychic wounds that decades of fascist rule inevitably inflict upon a nation. This is a highly literary work that forces you to go deeper, and I'm glad I did.

[jo · Rating 2 out of 5]

there might have been a time, when i was in high school or college perhaps, when this book would have spoken to me. in that time i read voraciously the peripatetic adventures of hemingway's non-heroes and imagined myself traveling from france to spain and back on the spur of the moment, overnight, roughing it up. the freedom, you know? it appeals to you when you are barely over childhood.

i don't know the author's age, but i imagine her to be also, as i was then, in her 20s. and i defy anyone to read this book without thinking of hemingway. but the comparison ends here. this is a brutal book about the immediate aftermath of a terrible dictatorship, and even though the dictatorship is finished, the dust is settling and a lot of the rottenness is being hastily swept under the rug.

first-person narrator mosca has lost parents and a brother in the war and fears that the security forces may be after her. in her terrible grief she seeks safety away from home, first in the spanish country-side, then on the mountains, and finally in france. she is accompanied in this journey by three friends.

there are a few recurring themes here: on the one hand, mosca (and some of her friends) still believe/hope that mosca's brother is alive, and quietly look for him. on the other, the four kids are terribly young and lost, and suffer great physical duress in their journey of escape. they are eaten alive by hunger and cold. this physical duress is accompanied by emotional duress, mostly caused by the ways in which their stories, feelings, and lives intersect and interact.

this adult reader (me) found herself quite perplexed at the young characters' survival in the intolerable conditions in which their journey plunge them. they basically never eat. they sleep on floors. they never bathe or get any creature comfort. for weeks. and weeks. with a sort of relish that i remember from those times, fuentes mentions again and again their thinness. living hard takes a big toll on the body. youth makes this toll romantic, and this is fine. but i would have liked a bit more explanation. truly, they basically NEVER EAT. even when there is food, they peck at it, too dejected to feel hunger.

i could not get into the intricacies of their relationships -- who loves whom, who trusts whom, who touches whom, who needs whom, who cannot stand whom, WHY. one needs to do this stuff sparsely for it to work. it's not done sparsely here. lots and lots of language is dedicated to it and this language goes from extremely beautiful and lyrical to somewhat juvenile and uncontrolled. a third of the book could have been edited out.

the denouement, which is not really a denouement but rather a more explicit journey into national mythology, a diving into the suppurating wound of the war and the dictatorship, is quite effective and beautiful, quite a few of the sentences were obscure to me, but the overall thrust of the last section is deeply poetic in a way in which the book is only infrequently, and this poetry is effective and powerful.

in spite of the fact that this book could have been trimmed down and its language better edited, there are quite a few fabulous passages to admire and savor.

i want to say that it is very obvious to me that the writer cares a great deal about this story, and that the writing of this book was no small feat. it must have cost her blood. i see on goodreads that readers are appreciating it. i'm glad. as i said, i am probably very much not its intended audience!

[Sirin · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 out of 5. I couldn't put it down. It's written elegantly and definitely worth the read.

[jenni · Rating 4 out of 5]

Searing and sorrowful, full of water, cities, ghosts, and words, all drowning, unmoored from their places; a laudable effort on capturing the pernicious transition to democracy in Spain, inked throughout with the tendrils of a clinging dictatorship that both defined and destroyed the nation. fledgling adolescence, deadly political discord, the cyclone of haplessness - it's a sad, slow book, bridged with pain and poetics, but it is a true book, one with a cinematic ending that plows through the reader like a drill.

[Moose · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's the subject matter that drew me to this book.
However, the pace was too slow. Hardly any meaningful content, and the whole thing was overwritten with too much mysticism and symbolism for my liking. Such an interesting important time in history; I was hoping to get something more out of this book but in the end it just fell flat. Meh

[Vera Kurian · Rating 5 out of 5]

This novel is imbued with the frenetic feeling of being young, politically angry, and more than a little reckless. You can feel the danger of the political tension in the country in the air and the characters are lashing out in ways you know might not end well. A novel with beautiful prose. (helps if you already have some understanding of what was going on in Spain during that time period).

[M R · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this was a beautifully written and deeply moving novel about love, family, loss, secrets, friendship, politics, revolution and the things that tie us to other people whether we want them to or not. Gabrielle takes us into the world of Spain after the falling of a dictator and we follow three friends, friends may be too strong a word, but three people intimately connected to one another by a life-changing event in the heat of revolution. There is a way that she talks about loss and the omnipresence of those who we never got to say a proper goodbye to that is heartbreakingly accurate. She paints a picture that takes us into this world of University students as they traverse and search Spain and France looking for answers or at the very least closure. There was a beautiful phrase that she wrote about when describing leaving one place for another, "I'd never left the country before. I'd thought about it so many times when I was a kid - I'd imagined the sky expanding, my lungs lifting with it, my whole body growing so large and light. But I just felt as small and crouched as before, a rodent scurrying from one tunnel to the next." This speaks to so many things that we imagine as children, and even as adults, that isn't all it's cracked up to be once we're actually doing. Often because these things are happening in scenarios and situations which we hadn't considered before because so often life happens and how could we imagine such scenarios?

[Romanette · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is set in Spain in 1977, after Franco's death but before Spain's future direction became clear. Revolution -- political, cultural, generational -- is in the air, along with punk music. Mosca and her friends flee their college town after they are IDed as being involved in an attack on a policeman during a demonstration. Their flight gains direction from their desire to be involved in the street actions in Madrid and from Mosca's search for her brother, who was disappeared after helping a revolutionary group. But that is not much direction, as the activists they encounter are more hippie communards than politicos, while meeting the demands of daily life becomes more onerous. Mosca's search becomes more mystical and Jungian and the story sort of splutters out.

I didn't know quite how to take this book. Perhaps I romanticize the Spanish Republicans, but I think of Spaniards as knowing which side they were on and what it meant to be a winner or a loser. Perhaps the generation coming of age in the interregnum did not have such a clear understanding -- nobody talked openly about the past then, and even now it's rare and discouraged -- but felt only the dead hand of the past holding them back. When I visited Spain around 2000, there was a huge generation gap. Basically I found it hard to relate to Mosca and her friends. Every time it seemed they were about to engage with their reality, they fell back into personal concerns. So while I can't recommend the book, there are touches of Spanish reality that just might bring new insights to the reader.

[L.E. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a perfect example of a novel that cannot be diminished to the insignificance of “ratings.” So if I grant one, it is only in order to offset this strange system of approval/disapproval, which will one day seem exactly what it is: stupid.

The story begins in the concrete world of 1977 Spain, and ends in the incorporeal world of death and grief. By the end, the political implications of the end of the Franco regime are absorbed into the protagonist’s own journey through loss.

It is, for better or worse (for some readers), written in a complex language, one that is neither English nor Castilian Spanish, but both... and yet, realized on the page in English. Because of this, the writing is riddled with a nuance and repetition - and nuance WITHIN the repetition - that would take a deep reader of poetry to fully appreciate. As for the poetry, the last part of the novel, in some ways, crosses a gap between poetic prose and prosaic poetry, entering the only possible world within language that may be able to, though always at a loss, portray the true and most profound entrance into grief.

[Mandy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Set in the aftermath of Franco’s death, this is a mostly compelling and illuminating portrait of young people trying to find their way in a country that still has to come to terms with its Fascist past and in which Franco’s legacy is still alive and strong. Youthful rebellion is everywhere and when a fight turns ugly and a policeman is killed the four main protagonists are forced to flee their hometown and go on the road. It’s never very clear what they are hoping to find on their journey and in fact they often seem both aimless and disengaged. As a portrait of disaffected youth in a changing political landscape I found the book quite convincing, although I did find their self-destructive behaviour irritating at times. There are some tense moments, and some poignant ones, especially concerning the grandmother who has been abandoned. It’s an atmospheric portrayal of post-Franco Spain and I found it interesting from that point of view, but the narrative meanders rather too much and I didn’t care particularly for any of the protagonists.

[Maphead · Rating 2 out of 5]

Gabrielle Lucille Fuentes’ first-time novel follows the adventures and misadventures of a small group of college age friends, the focus of which is Mosca, a rebellious young woman whose parents and brother were murdered by Spain’s Fascist security forces. Drifting from protest to protest and dingy bar to dingy bar across Spain, Mosca’s small band of misfits passionately yet aimlessly stumble about fueled by a steady diet of drugs, alcohol, Marxist-flavored radical politics and early punk music.

While some reviewers and readers enjoyed Fuentes’ novel, I on the other hand merely found it OK. I enjoyed the author’s glimpse into the turmoil of early post-Franco Spain but overall The Sleeping Years was not a big hit with me. On the other hand, I take comfort in knowing this is Fuentes’ first novel and as a novelist, she shows considerable promise. Therefore, with that in mind I look forward to her next novel which I’m betting will be much more to my liking.

[Garryvivianne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Teens caught up in the middle of Spain's turbulent period between Democracy & Dictatorship. Mosca, a young university student, gets involved with some friends during a protest & a policeman is hurt. They just know they are being sought so they embark on some crazy journey. Mosca feels she is on a journey to find her young brother, who has disappeared. Most people caught during the riots were killed, however she feels he is alive & she must find him.

I understand they are fighting "for" something, but I also feel they need a good spanking. They have no money, no clothes, nothing..... & live like the homeless people they have become. At times the story is so hopeless, I kind of feel sorry for them, while at the same time, saying "go HOME"!!

[Readingbringsjoy · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was a bit of a struggle for me. I do not agree with many of the points of views of the characters and the main event that sets the story into motion upset me. It also felt like the story moved along very slowly. Certain parts of the story were very interesting to me. It was interesting to see how friendship and loyalty can be very different things. How a promise can change the course of your life and make you go on a journey you never thought of going on.

I would recommend this book for people who are looking for a political adventure story. This book has a lot to say politically and if that is something you enjoy reading about then this is the book for you.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I downloaded this book as a suggestion for my book club in Torrox. We try to read at least one Spanish author and a book that takes place in Spain every year. Was intriged by the reviews online. Takes place in Salamanca, Madrid, Paris and Cadiz. Young author, Cuban American, this is her debut novel. She writes beautifully...underlined a lot of passages and will go back and read it again some day. Check out this interview with the author. It gives good background info: http://weird-sister.com/tag/the-sleep...

[Raven · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was great, but it definitely wasn't what I expected. I imagined the story would be more concrete, so the symbolism and imagery in the last 1/3 to 1/4 of the book caught me off guard, but I finished the book with a lot of thoughts swirling around my head. The writing is good, but I think I need to reread the book to appreciate it more because I was a bit confused the first time around.

I did really like the setting, it made me want to learn more about the political climate in 1970s Spain.

[Carol · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5?? Poetic, and I loved the exploration of Spain's leaving fascism, and the role of alienated protesters. But somehow it didn't cohere. On the one hand her loss, as portrayed in her passivity made sense; on the other hand, she was so passive it seemed unrealistic--or they were just too cool. Who really lives for months in a room without getting the hell out. And yet youthful being lost made sense too....Akin to Ferrante's exploration of radical Italy.

[Maya · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm admitting that I'm not going to finish this book. I didn't exactly like it, but I did appreciate it. Many reviewers talk about how nihilistic the main characters are. In my view, it's not that they're nihilistic. It's that they're dealing with deep personal and cultural grief, deep losses that they can't talk about openly. If you look beyond the surface, there's so much more here than punk, anarchist young people.

[Kerry Pickens · Rating 3 out of 5]

A chaotic tale with lots of arguing and politics, and not much plot or character development. There is probably an audience for this book, but it wasn't me. I agree with their politics, but the story was very predictable young adult tale where one of them dies before the end of the book.

[Bri · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun book for me. The characters were intriguing, the plot kept up a good pace, and the writing style was well done. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book.

[Denise · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Sleeping World is a beautifully written book about some of the ugliest of human behavior. It takes place in Spain, for the most part, in 1977 after Franco dies. The generals who staged the coup want to clean up the loose ends— the dissidents, mostly students—in anticipation of war crimes trials when the country becomes a democracy. College student Moska (fly in Spanish) and three other disaffected punk students are afraid for their lives because one of them assaulted a policeman; a fifth person, Alexis, is missing. Although Alexis, her younger brother, has been missing for over two years, Moska does not accept that he could be dead. She has heard rumors that he is in hiding, and takes off with the others to try to track him down. This is her own private agenda.

Alexis had been phoning Moska and their Abuela from various cities when he was gone from home for any length of time before his disappearance. This gives Moska a kind of map for her search: she will go to the cities he had called from to find clues—his tagging moniker A L X S, or news from other punks who may have seen him recently—and pursue the beloved brother she believes is still alive. Moska and her fellow travelers self-identify as punks, although up until the time they leave, she has been studying and prepping for her exams. When they decide to go, they are denying their student personas and delving deeper into punk culture.

Grito (Scream) is the leader of the group, and probably the most vested in the dissidents’ cause (or perhaps he’s just more emotionally impressionable). The others are Marco, a student who was Alexis’ constant companion for the year or so he’d been planning his actions, and La Canaria, Alexis’ girlfriend now attached to Grito. Moska doesn’t seem to think much of any of them, especially Marco, who is romantically interested in her. In fact, at the beginning of the book, Moska doesn’t seem to care about anything, other than her quest and perhaps for Abuela, whom she is leaving without warning. She’s lost in a world of promiscuous sex, drinking and drugs, all of which she uses to manipulate those around her.

It’s important to know that the siblings lived with their Abuela because their parents were also “disappeared” when the children were quite young. Abuela keeps a shrine to her dead son and daughter-in-law, but Moska doesn’t want her brother to be included in it. They have grown up thinking their parents were killed by the Fascist government. The only proof they have is the wallets and religious medallions their parents were wearing when they disappeared. It is common knowledge that this is the fascists’ signal that the disappeared people are dead. Moska takes her brother’s medallion when she leaves with the others.

They travel throughout Spain, where Moska checks alleys, bridges and public buildings looking for A L X S, with some positive results. But the police—the fachas or fascists—are doggedly pursuing the group. When they get to Madrid they are given a tip by a local punk that Alexis might be in Paris, which becomes their ultimate destination. We see the past mostly through Moska’s eyes, and her dreams. There are betrayals, denials and guilt fairly equally spread among the four former students. There is a revelation about one of the travelers that I didn’t see coming. And did I say Moska sometimes lies? To others and most importantly to herself.

The last part of the book is almost unbearably sad, yet beautifully written. Considering the times and the horrors of the immediately post-Franco events, It couldn’t have a postcard ending. There is a surreal episode right before the end of the book. No spoilers, but it’s crucial to understanding and forgiving Moska and Alexis.

This is the third time in less than a month that I’ve read about dissidents being “disappeared.” The other books take place in Argentina under Pinochet, and in Slovenia during WWII. Human nature being what it is, these events are still occurring all over this tired old world. Fascism seems to be the go-to philosophy when a government or an economy becomes (or appears to be) unstable. The current elections seem to be echoing the patterns of the past in attitude among a significant part of the electorate. Let’s hope we don’t follow the patterns established by Hitler, Mussolini, Pinochet and Franco. At some point, if democracy is to survive, we must not allow fear—economical or social— to influence us in choosing those who would lead us in that direction. I strongly recommend this book to those too young to remember these events, or who have forgotten how easily societies give up liberty.


I received an ARC from NetGalley and Simon & Schuster in exchange for an unbiased review

[Joy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Note: I hate writing reviews of books that don't wow me. It feels wrong to criticize art, something that the author has likely poured her heart into and fretted over for years. Perhaps it's my own defensiveness toward criticism (I don't take it well, although I'm getting better with age). Let's face it, I would never make it in the literature world.

Also on the self-realization note, one of my pet peeves in literature is overdone imagery and symbolism, or as I have described it in the past, "metaphor on steroids." Don't get me wrong, I love metaphor, and magical realism is one of my favorite genres. BUT, there are times when the symbolism is so overdone that it becomes cumbersome to read and takes away from the plot (what can I say, I'm a sucker for plot). I should also preface this review with a disclaimer that life has been a bit on the hectic side recently, so my ability to cognitively process anything more than "fire bad, tree pretty" (points for anybody who caught that reference) is nil. All of this is to say that I'm not sure I gave The Sleeping World the attention and concentration it deserved.

The Sleeping World takes place in late 1970s Spain, shortly after Francisco Franco's death, and follows 4 young adults, each actively opposed to the fascist regime and attempting to find his or her in a hostile environment. Mosca, our narrator, is still reeling from her brother's death at the hands of the government. We follow Mosca and her friends as they leave their small college town and travel to Madrid, Paris, and ultimately Cadiz in search of not only themselves, but a sense of peace and forgiveness.

This book has a great premise with a subject matter largely untouched in American literature. The prose is beautiful, the characters and the world they inhabit vivid. Themes of guilt, friendship, and secrets are explored beautifully against the backdrop of one of the darkest times in Spanish history, one that is unfortunately often overlooked. Despite my love of world history, I had to do some googling for an overview of this time period. Therein, the book is a huge success.

So why my hesitancy in writing this review? The pace is slow (often excruciatingly so), which was difficult for me given the aforementioned lack of mental capacity, and the descriptive passages numerous and repetitive at times. From a lyrical standpoint, The Sleeping World is a triumph. For me, though, it felt overwritten and overwrought. There was so much more that could have been explored, so much more characterization that could have taken place, without so much - for lack of a better word - "fluff". It has piqued my interest in the time period, and it's never a bad thing for a book to urge the reader to learn more. If you love lyricism and descriptive prose, you will likely love The Sleeping World. If, on the other hand, you prefer a bit more prose and "meat", you will likely be left dissatisfied.

Thank you to Touchstone for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Andria · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Sleeping World has a multi-layered title. It describes the ghosts that surround the main character Mosca. She chases after the shadow of her missing brother, as the ghosts of her country chase her. In this pivitol moment in history, Mosca is engulfed by Spain's history, and the void left by those who went missing in the 1970s riots.

The title also speaks to Mosca herself, in a daze through most of the novel despite traveling a long physical distance from home. She's frozen in time from the moment Alexis disappeared. Never quite able to move forward, any progress sending her back towards the brother she lost.

The contrast between the physical trek the characters embark on and their emotional stasis is unsettling. It also makes for an uncertain read. The novel is beautifully written, atmospheric and disquieting. But, by the end, I found it difficult to stay engaged with characters who were not engaged. As Mosca detatches further from reality, she also detatches further from the reader. Her story works at an emotional level, but I never quite felt absorbed in the plot itself.

The story centers on four university students during Spain's tumultuous return to democracy in the 1970s. Their role in the local riots makes them unsafe at home, and they are forced to leave town without a plan. All except Mosca, who knows she intends to visit the cities mentioned by her missing brother Alexis in passing. Madrid, Paris. As unlikely as it is, she believes she will find him there. But her own personal quest collides with the reality of the situation the four face. They are university-age, boozing and nonchalant. But they are also in a world that is changing too fast for them to keep up with. In their self-imposed exile, they find themselves short on food, money, allies, and most of all - a purpose.

The Sleeping World captures the stilted life of youth trapped between the old and new. Surrounded by violence, shaped by it, and too disillusioned and damaged to enjoy the progress made by their movement. It's a satisfying read, as a portrait of an age. It's less engaging as a story. But The Sleeping World still a very worthwhile read, especially as a chance to learn about this period in Spanish history.