I found myself feeling rather embarrassed with my lack of knowledge while reading this book. Before I get into the brief book plot, this book takes place in Spain during the reign of Francisco Franco in the 1950’s. I recognized the name of Franco but had little to no knowledge of what transpired in the 30+ years that he rules as a dictator in Spain. There’s a quote in the book of one of the characters talking to the American tourist who is just learning about what has been happening and he says “The topic of Spain is very controversial. Look, you study Hitler and Mussolini in school, but you don’t study Franco. Because he is still alive. The history hasn’t written itself yet”. Now I know this was being said in the year 1957 but I believe that could be true to this day. It’s a piece of history that is never learned by many Americans despite the pain it cause for so many Spaniards. It has been silenced for too long.
Daniel Matheson is an American tourist visiting Madrid in the summer of 1957. He doesn’t know much about the trip other than it is the first time his mom has been back to her home country since she left 20+ years ago and that his father has been invited by General Francisco Franco to discuss his oil company back in Texas. He’s just hoping for some pictures that might get him into the journalism school he secretly desires to attend. It’s the first time in awhile that tourists are welcome into the country. For as a tourist you can enter and leave freely but that can’t be said for many of the locals. Especially those who supported the republic. Ana is a maid for the hotel that Daniel and his family are staying at when they first meet and whose upbringing is a complete 180 to what Daniel is use to. With his keen ability to capture the perfect picture, he starts to question the things he sees around him and the secret dark side of this beautiful city.
This was one of those books that had me constantly adding things to a notebook to research latter. There was so much I didn’t know about, which while kind of embarrassing, made it so much more exciting to learn more about this part of history. The book also contained actual old media reports and oral commentary from this time which helped show how realistic much of this book is. It’s an absolutely incredible historical fiction novel that I am sure not many of us fully know what went on in those years of Franco. What actually happened near the fountain of whispers and silence.
Until Next Time, The Library Abroad
The Library Abroad 
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