Ghosts of Spain: Travels Through a Country's Hidden Past - Softcover

Tremlett, Giles

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0571221688 ISBN 13: 9780571221684

Publisher: Faber and Faber, 2007

Synopsis

The Spanish are reputed to be amongst Europe's most voluble people. So why have they kept silent about the terrors of the Spanish Civil War and the rule of dictator Generalísimo Francisco Franco?

The appearance - sixty years after that war ended - of mass graves containing victims of Franco's death squads has finally broken what Spaniards call 'the pact of forgetting'. At this charged moment, Giles Tremlett embarked on a journey around Spain - and through Spanish history.

Tremlett's journey was also an attempt to make sense of his personal experience of the Spanish. Why do they dislike authority figures, but are cowed by a doctor's white coat? How had women embraced feminism without men noticing? What binds gypsies, jails and flamenco? Why do the Spanish go to plastic surgeons, donate their organs, visit brothels or take cocaine more than other Europeans?

About this title

Review:

'It is written so powerfully and grippingly that it guarantees being read long into the night.' -- Oldie

'[A] superb travelogue.' -- Irish Times

Book Description:

Guardian journalist Giles Tremlett travels through contemporary Spain examining the darker sides of it's history.

About this edition

• Publisher: Faber and Faber
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0571221688
• ISBN 13: 9780571221684
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 464