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

Tremlett, Giles

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0571279392 ISBN 13: 9780571279395

Publisher: Faber & Faber, 2012

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:

Tremlett's work will bring many who think we know Spain to confront what we have hesitated to acknowledge even to ourselves. -- Matthew Parris

Tremlett writes with humour, modesty and a great affection for his subject -- Miranda France, Daily Telegraph Published On: 2006-03-19

a transfixing, elegantly written account of Spain today -- Siobhan Murphy, Metro Published On: 2006-03-22

Essential reading for anyone who wants to understand Spain. -- Sarah Williams, BBC History Magazine Published On: 2006-04-01

A feast of a book, Irish Times

'Lively and well-informed ... at once a history, a journalistic inquiry and a travel book.', Sunday Telegraph

'An invaluable book ... Ghosts of Spain has become something of a bible for those of us extranjeros who have chosen to live in Spain ... A country finally facing its past could scarcely hope for a better, or more enamored chronicler of its present.', New York Times Book Review

'Tremlett skilfully transports the reader back and forth from the medieval atmospher and tragic events of Spain's mid-twentieth century, to its modern and sophisticated present.', Guardian

'A brilliant evocation of Spain ... vivid and sensitive.', Spectator

'Excellent ... Tremlett writes with humour, modesty and a great affection for his subject.', Daily Telegraph

Book Description:

Ghost of Spain by Giles Tremlett, in a newly revised and updated edition of the Guardian journalist's journey through contemporary Spain examining the darker sides of its history.

About this edition

• Publisher: Faber & Faber
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0571279392
• ISBN 13: 9780571279395
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 496