Winter in Madrid by C.J. Sansom

Excerpt:

Harry Felt Panic beginning to stir. The thought of going back to Spain both excited and appalled him...

1940: after the Spanish Civil War, Madrid lies ruined, its people starving, as Germany continues its relentless march through Europe. Britain now stands alone, while General Franco considers whether to abandon neutrality and enter the war.

Into this uncertain world comes Harry Brett, a traumatized veteran of Dunkirk turned reluctant spy for the British Secret Service. Sent to gain the confidence of old schoolfriend Sandy Forsyth, now a shady Madrid businessman, Harry finds himself involved in a dangerous game - and surrounded by memories.

Meanwhile Sandy's girlfriend, ex-Red Cross nurse Barbara Clare, is engaged on her own secret mission - to find her former lover, Bernie Piper, a passionate Communist in the International Brigades who vanished on the bloody battlefields of the Jarama.

Part thriller, part love story, this is a remarkable tale set against the backdrop of Spain's bloody Civil War and war-torn London. Winter in Madrid follows the fortunes of three young men - formerly at public school together, now set on profoundly opposing courses, and navigating the tumultous world of 1930s Spain with their differing values and political affiliations. But as the Second World War draws near, one is sent to spy on another and the ramifications of a tragic love story will haunt them all. A compelling tale which offers a remarkable sense of place and of history unfolding

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


It took a lot of time before I finished this book. I like this kind of novels wherein the time was during war or a period wherein everything seems a mess, not only focusing on someone's life or one family's life. Do you get what I mean?

I like stories such as this because they show that all people have problems, sometimes worse still than the protagonist in the story. I just like it that way. Everything seems more fair.

It's just that this novel was harder for me to understand - the Fascists, the monarchist and the communists then the Falange. It was a bit messy for me to understand compared to "Hornet Flight" by Ken Follett.

It was hard for me to imagine myself to be inside the story. "Hornet Flight" was an easy read for me because the story goes on in my head like a movie or like I was really there in that particular time and place where I was reading but for "Winter in Madrid", it just didn't turn out that way. It was more difficult. I was really just a reader, like I was just a gossip-monger putting in bits and bits of news together to enclose all the important pieces of the story in one book.

The novel is good. I like it but I didn't fall in love with it completely. The excitement I had was only triggered in the last chapters of the book though there were many unpredictable parts that surprised me when I was reading.

All in all, as my rating says... in plain short words, "I liked it".