New Spanish Titles - Autumn 2011 - E

'No woman can be blamed if two men are in love with her.' Thus begins this magnificent novel of intense contrasts and unforgettable characters: Amelia, beautiful, rebellious, insatiable. Martín, idealistic, free-thinking, vanquished. And Alberto, the terrifying second-lieutenant Repellejo, a monster in love, a spirit endowed with a strange sensitivity.

Day dawns one Saturday in April in a small village in the south of Spain. A cry attracts the attention of all the house's inhabitants, announcing the death of an old woman. Over the next few hours the doors of the house are opened wide for the wake: conversations and gossip, relatives and neighbours, tears and reunions, flowers, prayers and people, lots of people.

'Pol is 29 and has Down's Syndrome. He's like a little child but in a big clumsy body. Mum complains all the time and says that everyone says Down's syndrome kids are so sweet and gentle, but  her son is the exception, and then she sighs. And it's not just that he's not sweet, he's also cheeky and stubborn and he throws tantrums. And he's a real pain.

Dusko's twelfth birthday is the last one he spends at home, because then the Balkan war comes into his life. A child of Sarajevo and a mixture of all the ethnicities of the region, Dusko celebrates his 13th, 14th and 15th birthdays amid a background of struggle, hatred, revenge and lies - between neighbours. After those years, nothing can go back to how it was before.