The Sleeping Voice
Registered by stubee of Bury, Greater Manchester United Kingdom on 6/24/2017
This Book is Currently in the Wild!
This Book is Currently in the Wild!
2 journalers for this copy...
Our book club selection for our July 2017 meeting.
Blurb from the back:
It is 1939. In the Ventas prison in Madrid a group of women have been incarcerated. Their crime is to have supported or fought on the Republican side in Spain's cruel and devastating Civil War. Chief among them are Hortensia, who fought with the militia and is pregnant by her husband Felipe - a man still at large and fighting against Franco's dictatorship - and who lives with the knowledge that she will be shot after she gives birth; sixteen-year-old Elvira, who tried to leave Spain with her mother, but was arrested by the Falangists while she was boarding their ship; Tomasa, whose husband, four sons and daughter-in-law were thrown off a bridge; and Pepita, Hortensia's sister, who from outside the prison acts as messenger between her and her husband.
Dulce Chacon's deeply moving novel is based upon the actual testimonies of a number of women who survived the Spanish Civil War, and suffered imprisonment under the Franco regime, as well as on accounts of others who died fighting for freedom.
This was our bookclub choice and comes not long after we read For Whom The Bell Tolls, and this book provided a really different but vivid perspective on this period of Spanish history. The book was very easy to read although the subject matter was hard to read at times. The conditions the women were subjected to were appalling, but what shone throughout the book was the commitment and dedication the women displayed not only to the cause they were fighting for but also in their relationships to each other.
It is 1939. In the Ventas prison in Madrid a group of women have been incarcerated. Their crime is to have supported or fought on the Republican side in Spain's cruel and devastating Civil War. Chief among them are Hortensia, who fought with the militia and is pregnant by her husband Felipe - a man still at large and fighting against Franco's dictatorship - and who lives with the knowledge that she will be shot after she gives birth; sixteen-year-old Elvira, who tried to leave Spain with her mother, but was arrested by the Falangists while she was boarding their ship; Tomasa, whose husband, four sons and daughter-in-law were thrown off a bridge; and Pepita, Hortensia's sister, who from outside the prison acts as messenger between her and her husband.
Dulce Chacon's deeply moving novel is based upon the actual testimonies of a number of women who survived the Spanish Civil War, and suffered imprisonment under the Franco regime, as well as on accounts of others who died fighting for freedom.
This was our bookclub choice and comes not long after we read For Whom The Bell Tolls, and this book provided a really different but vivid perspective on this period of Spanish history. The book was very easy to read although the subject matter was hard to read at times. The conditions the women were subjected to were appalling, but what shone throughout the book was the commitment and dedication the women displayed not only to the cause they were fighting for but also in their relationships to each other.
I enjoyed this book, it took me around 50 pages to get used to the characters and where it was leading.
A lovely piece on a part of history I really knew very little about (apart from reading For Whom The Bells Tolls). I loved the characters, they where well developed, and I really felt their emotions coming through in the novel.
I'd recommend this to anyone interested in reading about The Republican's part in the Spanish Civil War.
A lovely piece on a part of history I really knew very little about (apart from reading For Whom The Bells Tolls). I loved the characters, they where well developed, and I really felt their emotions coming through in the novel.
I'd recommend this to anyone interested in reading about The Republican's part in the Spanish Civil War.
Journal Entry 4 by stubee at Hotel Gasperin Bohinj in Bohinj, Gorenjska Slovenia on Thursday, June 29, 2017
Released 6 yrs ago (6/29/2017 UTC) at Hotel Gasperin Bohinj in Bohinj, Gorenjska Slovenia
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
Leaving on a bookshelf at Hotel Gasperin near Lake Bohinj.
