MÚSICA DE OPERA

All families have secrets. This novel tells the story of three generations of a provincial family left scarred by some of them. From the turbulent years of the Spanish Civil War to the final stage of the Franco regime, the unforgettable characters in OPERA MUSIC reveal to us the wounds and concerns they were never allowed to show. All three generations lived through difficult times, but there were always rays of light and cracks where love slipped in.

The novel centers on three women: Miss Elvira, who is granted a life of comfort and privilege until she finds herself caught far from Spain and her children at the outbreak of the Civil War; Valentina, a young orphan, compelled to depend on the generosity of her relatives; and Alba, a sickly girl who begins to open up to life, leaving her adolescence behind. Through their individual perceptions of the world, a panorama is revealed full of enigmas and far from a simple black-and-white vision.

History as represented through collective milestone events that make the headlines in the newspapers - the outbreak and end of the Civil War, the visit from the president of the United States, the Cuban revolution, Russian tanks crushing the Prague spring - is interwoven with the internal conflicts of the characters: they seem to tell us that life is made up of pain, of misunderstanding, of joy and secrets. There are many types of love, they also tell us, and you have to love and also know how to look for love.

The stories that are revealed, the areas of shadows, the difficulty of judging others and the unattainability of intimacy set the tone for a novel that is as subtle as it is ambitious in its unflinching endeavour to look into the past to find the keys that allow the present to be understood or at least provide a glimpse of the possibility of understanding.