Cry, Mother Spain, Lydie Salvayre
Cry, Mother Spain, Lydie Salvayre
List: $24.99 | Sale: $17.50
Club: $12.49

Cry, Mother Spain

Author: Lydie Salvayre, Ben Faccini

Narrator: Maggie Mash

Unabridged: 7 hr 38 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 06/16/2016


Synopsis

In the summer of 1936, Montse is fifteen years old and her country is on the brink of civil war. Her tiny village in the north east of Spain is a world away from the tensions beginning to overspill in other parts of the country, but when her brother José returns from working in a nearby town, brimming with anarchic zeal, Montse is captivated. Swept away by the fervour of the revolution, caught between love, family and honour, her sheltered life will be abruptly changed forever.

Years later, with her memory almost gone, she is telling her daughter the story of this one dazzling summer - the only one she can remember. Her daughter meanwhile has been reading the anti-Franco pamphlet, Les Grands Cimetières sous la lune by the right-wing novelist, George Bernanos. His revulsion at the Franco regime and the complicity of the Catholic Church, intertwines with Montse's memories, as her story builds to its devastating conclusion.

Powerful and deeply personal, Cry, Mother Spain unites two different experiences of one horrific conflict, making up a complex tapestry of love, faith and revolution.

(P)2016 WF Howes

Reviews

Goodreads review by candide_in_ohio on February 07, 2015

In theory, I should have loved this book. I have long been obsessed with the Spanish Civil War- and read quite a lot about it, but most of the canonical SCW books (Malraux, Orwell, Bernanos, Hemingway) are not only from a masculine perspective but also very hypermasculine in their discourse- so the......more

Goodreads review by MJ on October 30, 2019

Versatile French imp Lydie Salvayre has impressed this reader with her hilarious anti-corporate rants, her strange and upsetting monologues, and her black comic satires, and titles awaiting translation that I long to read. This novel makes a lunge at the mainstream (Prix Goncourt winner) with an ent......more

Goodreads review by Vendedor de rápida on September 14, 2015

Otra maldita novela sobre la Guerra Civil. En Francia quizás estén menos saturados y por eso le han dado el Goncourt a esta historia sentimental y bien narrada que quizás haya sido ya contada demasiadas veces. De hecho, las digresiones que incluye, algunas elegantes sobre Bernanos y otras menos suti......more


Quotes

Impressive ... an effective account of a hideous time of brutal politics and the desperate compromises many made to make life possible The Sunday Times

The great originality of this novel ... is the blending of the universal and personal experiences of the Spanish Civil War Figaro

An extraordinary book . . . very powerful Irish Times

Lydie Salvayre orchestrates her story like a true maestro BibliObs

A turbulent, magnificent novel that shines a new light on the Spanish Civil War. It resonates with the power of a manifesto for modern times Express

Lydie Salvayre has cultivated a resounding anger... Cry, Mother Spain is the novel and the tribute of an impassioned voice Libération

A seriously important novel ... The novel Pasolini would have written had he been the son of Spanish exiles Time Out Barcelona

Lydie Salvayre creates a dynamic harmony in a language that elevates grit, heroism and beauty Le Monde

Lydie Salvayre has written a novel about the Spanish Civil War unlike any other. Her approach gives her story an astonishing power and a unique perspective ABC Cultural

A magnificent novel. A brilliantly written family saga and a mesmerising study of memory and historical reconstruction El Mundo