The Wind from the East
A multigenerational story of families at war for fans of Elena Ferrante
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- 3,99 €
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- 3,99 €
Publisher Description
'This magnificent saga of shipwrecked lives grips from the first sentence and weaves parallel intrigues of memory and survivial, money and revenge, resolved only in the closing pages' Independent
In a small seaside suburb two strangers arrive - Juan Olmedo, accompanied by his mentally disabled brother and his young niece, and Sara Gomez, an enigmatic woman in her fifties. Both have their reasons for fleeing the city. Sara's father had returned from the Civil war a broken man, unable to support his family. In desperation, her mother was forced to give up the young baby to her childless employer.
Growing up amidst a background that would never truly be her own, Sara was forever caught between her love of the good life and her feelings of duty towards a family and a poverty that repelled her. Now Sara has more money than she had ever dreamed of, but her freedom has come at a price. Juan also has his reasons for wanting to start again. A doctor in the local ER unit, he is haunted by a tragedy in his family's past and by a secret sexual obsession that threatens the fragile equilibrium he has found in his new home.
An emotional, sensual, sweeping epic saga for fans of Elena Ferrante and Maggie O'Farrell.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Sara Gomez Morales, 53, moves from Madrid to an Andalusian resort town to buy a house on a beach and do nothing. Her new neighbors include Juan Olmedo, a 40-year-old orthopedic surgeon fleeing Madrid for his own reasons. Flashbacks, which abound from early on, reveal that Sara was born poor in Madrid, but was raised by her rich godmother. As a young woman, Sara falls in love with and becomes pregnant by the married Vicente Gonzalez de Sandoval, a wealthy socialist, but she loses the child, and refuses to marry him when he divorces his wife. Years later, he helps her defraud her godmother of millions. Meanwhile, Juan's flashbacks center on his obsessive love for his deceased sister-in-law, Charo, and his sibling rivalry with his deceased brother, Damian. In the present, there's Maribel, the poorly educated cleaning woman both Sara and Juan look down upon (even as she becomes Sara's friend and Juan's lover), as well as Juan's 10-year-old niece, Tamara, and profoundly retarded brother, Alfonso. Grandes (The Ages of Lul ) sets it all up fascinatingly, but Sara's past seems disconnected from who she is today, and sloppy writing (or translation) obscures the rest.
