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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 Carrión González, 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 Fernández 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?
‘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 Carrión González, 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 Fernández 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?
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Reviews
Almudena Grandes is one of the most entertaining and powerful literary novelists now writing in Spanish. The Frozen Heart is a great book - one of the most fully engaged and compelling stories I've ever read
One of the great writers of our time
More Iberian ardour ... focusing on the high passions an easterly wind provokes in the inhabitants of a small cooastal town
Most of this story is set in the past, as the events of the present are refracted through continual flashbacks of Juan and Sara's earlier lives ... steadily filled in with intense psychological detail ... the dexterity with which Grandes is able to unpick psychological states makes for a convincing and moving book
Into the rich mix Grandes throws some classic ingredients of fairy-tales and fables ... Grandes never lets the pace slacken, combining a cracking story with convincing characterisation and good detail
This novel confirms Almudena Grandes as one of Spain's leading writers ... this is a hugely intelligent, wise novel. It also tells a gripping story