BookTalk
BookTalk
Book Talk
with Smiffs book & card store, Nerja
The historian Professor
Paul Preston has painted a
memorable and at times
harrowing picture of the
lives and times of
Spaniards in the 20th
century. His previous
Spain-related works
include, among others:
The Triumph Of
Democracy In Spain
(1986); Franco: A
Biography (1993); A
Concise History Of The
Spanish Civil War (1996);
Comrades (1999); Doves
of War: Four Women In
Spain (2002); Juan Carlos
(2004); and, The Spanish
Civil War (2006).
dictatorship, the bloodless
transition to democracy
after 1975 looked set to
herald a new dawn.
However, corruption and
political incompetence
have continued to corrode
political coexistence and
social cohesion.
This is not a dry history.
It is spiced up with vivid
portraits of politicians and
army officers, some
corrupt and others clean,
recounting the triumphs
and disasters of Kings
Alfonso XIII and Juan
Carlos. A People Betrayed
may well help you to
understand why the right
and left have been unable or unwilling to deal with corruption
and the continuing struggle between Spanish centralist
nationalism and regional desires for independence.
His latest oeuvre, A People Betrayed is subtitled A History Of
Corruption, Political Incompetence And Social Division In
Modern Spain 1874-2018 (l). It aims to put the experiences of
Spaniards in that entire century in sharp perspective based on
more than 40 years of historical, political and economic
research. Preston pulls no punches in revealing what he
believes to be the utter betrayal of Spain by its politicians,
military and the Church, and the consequences. The book
covers a great sweep of history from 1974, via Spain’s
catastrophic military defeat in 1898 by the United States,
through a procession of failed dictatorships and democracies,
the Civil War, and its aftermath, namely nearly four decades of
dictatorship.
The book leads off this month’s Soltalk Hotlist of titles, some
entirely new, others moving into small paperback format for
the first time or being reissued, sometimes after years out of
print. All are due for publication on dates in February, with
availability in print this month or in early March. The Hotlist
helps readers to budget for and plan book ordering.
Among the thriller fiction titles, this month, at least five stand
out as worth a look.
This comprehensive history of modern Spain chronicles the
fomenting of violent social division throughout the country by
institutionalised corruption and startling political
incompetence.
Maxwell’s Demon (l), by Steven Hall, finds life catching up with
struggling novelist Thomas Quinn. Five years ago, his
sometimes friend Andrew Black wrote a single, million copy-
selling mystery novel and then disappeared. Could it be that
Quinn is now being stalked by the hero of Black’s book? His
wife Imogen usually has the answers, but she is working on the
other side of the world and talking to her on webcam just is
not the same. Quinn finds
himself in a world that
might well be coming
apart at the seams. If he
can find Black, he might
start finding answers. It is
being said that this novel
forges an entirely new
blend of mystery;
somewhere between
detective fiction, ghost
story and philosophical
quest.
Before 1923, electoral corruption excluded the mass of
Spaniards from organised
politics, forcing them to
instead opt for either
apathy or violent
revolution. Social conflict,
economic tension, and a
struggle between centralist
nationalism and regional
independence
movements, then led to
the Civil War of 1936–
1939. During the Primo de
Rivera and Franco
dictatorships, grotesque
and shameless corruption
went hand-in-hand with
inept policies that
prolonged Spain’s
economic backwardness
well into the 1950s.
Elevator Pitch (l), by
Linwood Barclay, begins
on a Monday, when four
people board an elevator
in a Manhattan, New
York, office tower. Each
presses a button for their
Following the Franco
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