The Spanish Civil War was a bloody fight that lasted from 1936 to 1939, and was fought between the Republicans who favored democracy, and the Nationalists, self-described fascists led by General Franco. Although much has been written about the men who fought this war, including General Franco, who ruled until his death in 1975, very little has been written about the women who kept the fighters on both sides of the battle alive through their nursing and their farming. It is these forgotten women that Freda Lightfoot focuses on in her novel of the same title. In truth, the novel is centered on the stories of four forgotten women. Two of them, Charlie and Libby, left Scotland in 1937 to provide support in Spain. The third woman is Rosita, a Spanish Republican, who found herself in the middle of the war married to a brutal fascist. The fourth woman is Jo, Libby's Scottish granddaughter who, in 1986, inadvertently instigates the unraveling of fifty year old mysteries when she displays in her art gallery an old painting that she found in her grandmother's attic. Lightfoot tells their stories in pieces. Some of the pieces belong to the 1930s, and some belong to 1986. All of the pieces are connected to each other and are interwoven with mysteries, love affairs and stories of deceit, betrayal and murder. This is a book that was hard to put down.
(I received this copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.)
* Print Length: 384 pages
* Publisher: Lake Union Publishing (September 6, 2016)
* Publication Date: September 6, 2016
* Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
