About the author
About the book
DOMINGO’S ANGEL – Jenny Twist
When Angela turns up in a remote Spanish mountain village, she is so
tall and so thin and so pale that everyone thinks she is a ghost or a fairy or
the dreadful mantequero that comes in the night and sucks the fat from your bones.
But Domingo knows better. “Soy
Angela,” she said to him when they met – “I am an
angel.” Only later did he realise that she was telling him her name and by then
it was too late and everyone knew her as Domingo’s Angel.
This is the story of their
love affair. But it is also the story of the people of the tiny mountain
village – the indomitable Rosalba - shopkeeper, doctor, midwife and wise woman,
who makes it her business to know everything that goes on in the village;
Guillermo, the mayor, whose delusions of grandeur are rooted in his
impoverished childhood; and Salva the Baker, who risked his life and liberty to
give bread to the starving children.
The events in this story
are based on the real experiences of the people of the White Villages in Southern
Spain and their struggle to keep their communities alive through the years of
war and the oppression of Franco’s rule.
My review
This book will
enchant you from the start, just as Domingo finds himself enchanted by the
red-haired stranger who arrives in his Spanish village and is reported to bark
like a dog. The stranger is Angela, an English woman with a guilty secret of
her own and who soon makes her mark in the village. This book has all the elements that I personally enjoy, a foreign location, historical backdrop and memorable characters. I particularly enjoyed the
way the characters developed in the story and the themes of guilt and
forgiveness. Set against the background of the Spanish civil war, Jenny Twist
is adept at allowing the story to unfold at its own pace so bit by bit we find
out about the way the war affected the main characters.
The whole tale is
pulled together by the matriarchal Rosalba with flashbacks to explain each
character’s story.
The evocation of
Spain in the early fifties and the backdrop of the war in the thirties are
extremely well portrayed and easy to imagine. This book will tug your
heartstrings as you find out what happened when neighbour was set against
neighbour in an effort to survive. The story does end on a positive note and
like all truly great reads, I was sad when I came to the end.
Best for...
Those who like a good story with a Spanish historical background
My rating
5/5 I thoroughly enjoyed this story
Links
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Jenny Twist
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