A story of displacement, both literal and emotional, and of reconciliation, set in Fascist Spain at the end of World War II. In the mountain town of Escorial, an American woman hides a small child and begins to understand the strange child's extraordinary story, and her own.
I picked up this book quite randomly at a used bookstore. A novel loosely set in a small town in Spain late in World War II, it is written in a style which reminded me of so many English literature ‘classics’ that I’ve read. The impression was strengthened, I think, by the actual book – a high quality paperback that is dog-eared from use and brown from humidity. The story is snowy and mysterious, the strength of a child’s prescient naiveté playing against an adult’s hesitant willingness to be involved.
A sad yet also uplifting tale about the persecutions of WWII in Spain. The characters are almost dreamlike and therefore seem unrealistic by today's standards, but in those times anything was possible.