Almudena Grandes

Efter den spanska republikens fall tvingas läkaren Guillermo García Medina byta identitet eftersom han givit sårade republikanska soldater blodtransfusioner under inbördeskriget. Guillermo blir Rafael Cuesta Sanchez, kontorist på en transportfirma. Identitetsbytet möjliggörs av en av Guillermos patienter, som han också räddat livet på, diplomaten Manuel Arroyo. Denne Manuel Arroyo rekryterar Guillermo till det spanska kontraspionaget för att infiltrera det underjordiska nätverk som leds av den före detta simmardrottningen Clara Stauffer. Clara hjälper tyska officerare att via Madrid ta sig till general Peróns Argentina för att där få en fristad. Manuel och Guillermo försöker med gemensamma ansträngningar stoppa den illegala trafiken över Atlanten, den ene i Argentina den andre i Madrid.

Mästerligt skildrar Almudena Grandes verkliga händelser från efterkrigstidens Spanien och Argentina i denna politiska thriller och spionsroman.

A stunning erotic novel that has sold over 1 million copies worldwide - FIFTY SHADES OF GREY for a more sophisticated and adventurous reader.Long before FIFTY SHADES OF GREY, Grandes was dazzling the literary world with this highly charged novel about a young woman embarking on a series of sexual adventures.Lulu's journey begins won the night she loses her virginity to Pablo - her brother's best friend and twelve years her senior. Their relationship is obsessive - not possessive - and their appetites for new erotic territory are insatiable. Lulu's thirst for sexual discovery takes her through voyeurism, power plays and homoeroticism. But soon her forays into illicit and dangerous sex threaten to absorb her completely.

I ett Madrid präglat av nöd, fattigdom och politiskt förtryck försöker artonåriga Manolita Perales García ta hand om sina fyra yngre syskon när hennes far och styvmor kastas i fängelse och hennes storebror Antonio går under jorden. Efter Francos maktövertagande tvingas Antonio leda sin underjordiska motståndscell från gömstället i omklädningsrummet på en flamencoklubb. Motvilligt går Manolita med på att besöka en politisk fånge i det ökända Porlierfängelset, för att på så sätt hjälpa sin bror med spridning av den politiska propagandan. Snart upptäcker hon att hon hyser starka känslor för fången, och att de är besvarade, men Manolitas tillvaro ställs återigen på sin spets när det visar sig att en av Antonios partikamrater är angivare. Frågan är bara vem?

Verkliga händelser och personer blandas med fiktiva när Almudena Grandes med inlevelse skildrar livet i efterkrigstidens Madrid i sin nya, brett anlagda roman. Manolitas tre bröllop vitt nar om misär och hopplöshet men också om sammanhållning, uppfinningsrikedom och ett stort mått av civilkurage hos madridborna.

Spanien under Franco: ett land som fortfarande präglas av inbördeskrigets fasor. I fattiga Andalusien bor Nino, sonen till en civilgardist. När skogvaktaren Pepe Portugisen kommer till byn blir sig inget likt igen. Med Pojken som läste Jules Verne skildrar den hyllade spanska författaren Almudena Grandes sitt lands efterkrigshistoria.

Det är sommaren 1947 och åtta år sedan Franco kom till makten, men i bergen uppe i Sierra del Sur fortsätter gerillakriget oförtrutet. Männen från den republikanska sidan har flytt upp i bergen och gör nattliga räder mot civilgardister och andra Francotrogna. De har lämnat sina familjer bakom sig och dessa utsätts hela tiden för trakasserier och hot, när de inte plockas in på garnisonen för regelvidriga förhör.

Nino blir genast fascinerad och imponerad av den enstörige Pepe som slagit sig ned i en gammal kvarn, och Pepe blir hans vän och förebild. Nino är ett sjukligt barn som gillar att läsa böcker och han har lovat sig själv att aldrig bli civilgardist som sin far. Istället börjar han ta skrivmaskinslektioner i syfte att bli kontorist i kommunalhuset.

Genom vänskapen till Pepe och genom Jules Vernes böcker får Nino upp ögonen för vad som egentligen pågår, inte bara i hans by utan i hela Spanien och han tvingas välja sida. De mardrömmar han har om nätterna och som hans föräldrar försöker få honom att glömma är i själva verket inget annat än tortyr av tillfångatagna motståndsmän och -kvinnor och nu måste han hålla sin nyupptäckta sanning för sig själv.

From the Spanish Maggie O'Farrell, a sweeping epic about the Spanish Civil War. 'A classy blockbuster - a layered saga of family life, rivalry and redemption' GUARDIAN In the small town of Torrelodones on the outskirts of Madrid, a funeral is taking place. Julio Carri n Gonz lez, a man of tremendous wealth and influence in Madrid, has come home to be buried. But as the family stand by the graveside, his son Alvaro notices the arrival of a stranger -- a young and attractive woman. No one appears to know who she is, or why she is there. Alvaro's questions only deepen when the family inherits an enormous amount of money that is a surprise even to them. In his father's study Alvaro discovers an old folder with letters sent to his father in Russia between 1941 and 1943, faded photos of people he never met and a locked grey metal box. The woman is Raquel Fern ndez Perea, the daughter of Spaniards who fled during the Civil War. One episode in her past has marked her for ever -- the only time she saw her grandfather cry. Her fate, and that of the family, now hangs on the secrets of Julio's past.From the provincial heartlands of Spain to the battlefields of Russia, THE FROZEN HEART is a mesmerising journey through a war that tore families apart, pitted fathers against sons, brothers against brothers, wives against husbands. Against such a past, where do faith and loyalty lie?

"En los ultimos anos ha aumentado de forma significativa la reflexion sobre los problemas que atanen a las mujeres, los dilemas que asedian sus cuerpos y, como consecuencia, las demandas feministas para tratar de solucionarlos. Asi ha sido como, en la actualidad, vivimos un nuevo ciclo de movilizaciones y una diversificacion de los discursos feministas, en especial de aquellos relacionados con un tema que parecia superado ya en el siglo XXI: "El derecho de las mujeres a decidir sobre nuestro cuerpo". Un derecho a decidir asumida ya la legitimidad del aborto que atane a muchos dilemas: la abolicion o regularizacion de la prostitucion; las prohibiciones e imposiciones religiosas; las tiranias esteticas que viven muchas mujeres en Occidente para poder acceder a realizar trabajos de distinta indole, o la ilegalidad, que quieren convertir en legalidad, de alquilar a una mujer con el proposito de dejarla embarazada y acabar comprandole el hijo tras dar a luz. Temas que, sin duda, ponen el foco en la condicin, todava subalterna y vulnerable, que viven las mujeres y sealan sus cuerpos como objetos, depsitos del placer, susceptibles de ser comprados, alquilados y vendidos por los hombres. Asuntos acerca de la dignidad y hasta el orgullo de "otros" que, por extrao que parezca, les dejan, en no pocas ocasiones, escaso margen de maniobra para decidir qu hacer al respecto. Temas los cuatro a travs de los que se evidencia cmo, en la mayora de casos, la clase poltica huye del debate, de uno o de todos, porque sin importarle demasiado la situacin en la que se debe encontrar una mujer que llega a ese escenario va de la mano de grupos de presin y lobbies que se desenvuelven con soltura y sin complejos en el marco de democracias despolitizadas y preocupadas slo por los beneficios econmicos. Parece que no debera generar ninguna duda que, cuando existe una necesidad bsica, lo que decide cualquier mujer para conseguirla no es una reaccin fruto de su libertad, sino condicionada, precisamente, porque no la tiene. As pues, en realidad, no siempre tienen el "derecho a decidir sobre nuestros cuerpos", tal como sera deseable en pleno siglo XXI. Ya lo deca con claridad Rousseau en el lejano siglo XVIII, en El contrato social: la autntica libertad surge de las condiciones materiales. Quiz la solucin pasa por que "nadie sea tan pobre como para querer venderse y nadie sea tan rico como para poder comprar a otros"; slo as la mujer conseguir , de verdad, poder decidir sobre su cuerpo."

Almudena Grandes is one of Spain s foremost women s writers, having sold over 1.1 million copies of her episodios de una guerra interminable, her six-volume series that ranges from the Spanish Civil War to the democratic period; the myriad prizes awarded to her, 18 in total, confirm her pre-eminence. This book situates Grandes s novels within gendered, philosophical, and mnemonic theoretical concepts that illuminate hidden dimensions of her much-studied work. Lorraine Ryan considers and expands on existing critical work on Grandes s oeuvre, proposing new avenues of interpretation and understanding. She seeks to debunk the arguments of those who portray Grandes as the proponent of a sectarian, eminently biased Republican memory by analysing the wide variety of gender and perpetrator memories that proliferate in her work. The intersection of perpetrator memory with masculinity, ecocriticism, medical ethics and the child s perspectives confirms Grandes nuanced engagement with Spanish memory culture. Departing from a philosophical basis, Ryan reconfigures the Republican victim in the novels as a vulnerable subject who attempts to flourish, thus refuting the current critical opinion of the victim as overly-empowered. The new perspectives produced in this monograph do not aim to suggest that Grandes is an advocate of perpetrator memory; rather, it suggests that Grandes is committed to a more pluralistic idea of memory culture, whereby her novels generate understanding of multiple victim, perpetrator and gender memories, an analysis that produces new and meaningful engagements with these novels. Thus, Ryan contends that Grandes s historical novels are infinitely more complex and nuanced than heretofore conceived.

Almudena Grandes is one of Spain s foremost women s writers, having sold over 1.1 million copies of her episodios de una guerra interminable, her six-volume series that ranges from the Spanish Civil War to the democratic period; the myriad prizes awarded to her, 18 in total, confirm her pre-eminence. This book situates Grandes s novels within gendered, philosophical, and mnemonic theoretical concepts that illuminate hidden dimensions of her much-studied work. Lorraine Ryan considers and expands on existing critical work on Grandes s oeuvre, proposing new avenues of interpretation and understanding. She seeks to debunk the arguments of those who portray Grandes as the proponent of a sectarian, eminently biased Republican memory by analysing the wide variety of gender and perpetrator memories that proliferate in her work. The intersection of perpetrator memory with masculinity, ecocriticism, medical ethics and the child s perspectives confirms Grandes nuanced engagement with Spanish memory culture. Departing from a philosophical basis, Ryan reconfigures the Republican victim in the novels as a vulnerable subject who attempts to flourish, thus refuting the current critical opinion of the victim as overly-empowered. The new perspectives produced in this monograph do not aim to suggest that Grandes is an advocate of perpetrator memory; rather, it suggests that Grandes is committed to a more pluralistic idea of memory culture, whereby her novels generate understanding of multiple victim, perpetrator and gender memories, an analysis that produces new and meaningful engagements with these novels. Thus, Ryan contends that Grandes s historical novels are infinitely more complex and nuanced than heretofore conceived.

'This magnificent saga of shipwrecked lives grips from the first sentence and weaves parallel intrigues of memory and survivial, money and revenge, resolved only in the closing pages' IndependentIn a small seaside suburb two strangers arrive - Juan Olmedo, accompanied by his mentally disabled brother and his young niece, and Sara Gomez, an enigmatic woman in her fifties. Both have their reasons for fleeing the city. Sara's father had returned from the Civil war a broken man, unable to support his family. In desperation, her mother was forced to give up the young baby to her childless employer. Growing up amidst a background that would never truly be her own, Sara was forever caught between her love of the good life and her feelings of duty towards a family and a poverty that repelled her. Now Sara has more money than she had ever dreamed of, but her freedom has come at a price. Juan also has his reasons for wanting to start again. A doctor in the local ER unit, he is haunted by a tragedy in his family's past and by a secret sexual obsession that threatens the fragile equilibrium he has found in his new home. An emotional, sensual, sweeping epic saga for fans of Elena Ferrante and Maggie O'Farrell.