The Fountains of Silence has everything I could possibly ask for in a work of historical fiction: Vivid and deeply researched details about a place and time I know little about, slowly unspooling mystery, intricately drawn characters who feel of their time but deeply relatable, forbidden romance, and the intense pathos of learning about a dark and terrible stretch of history that offers an alarming reflection of the times we're living in. You Must Read This In Wordless Imagery, An Immigrant's Timeless Tale He makes her want to spill all her secrets, and nothing could be more dangerous than that.

But silence becomes difficult once she is assigned to assist Daniel's family and finds herself spending more and more time with the strange American cowboy who captures the truth in his photographs. Silence is the only hope of safety in a country governed by fear. She needs the hotel job and she needs to keep her head down and not make any trouble. Her father was killed, her mother imprisoned for their part in the resistance against Franco's regime, casting a dark shadow across her life and those of her siblings. His family vacation in fascist Spain has been very carefully curated, but with each photo he takes, he begins to notice more and more things that don't quite add up - especially once he meets Ana.Īna works as a maid at the Hotel Castellana Hilton, where Daniel is staying with his family. More than anything, he wants to be a photojournalist, but his father is intent on grooming him to take over the oil business. He's a Texan boy, through and through, but one who speaks fluent Spanish and never quite fit in with the snobby society folks who thought his Spanish mother was a bit too exotic.

Our fellow tourist in this seldom-depicted setting is Daniel, the son of an American oil executive who is visiting Spain while his father brokers a lucrative deal with Franco. In her new book, The Fountains of Silence, she is intent on once again slaying us with history that is full of both beauty and terror, this time set in 1950's Spain - a country held tight in the grip of General Francisco Franco's blood-soaked dictatorship. Ruta Sepetys last tore our hearts out with Salt to the Sea, her exploration of the human condition as seen through the eyes of refugees fleeing World War II. Your purchase helps support NPR programming. Close overlay Buy Featured Book Title The Fountains of Silence Author Ruta Sepetys

The fountains of silence ruta sepetys