Ghosts Of Spain

£8.99

“Ghosts of Spain” has been subtitled “Travels Through a Country’s Hidden Past” and the book is just that: a highly affecting travelogue through modern day Spain and its recent history.

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?

All of these questions, and many he never originally intended to ask, are delved into in this marvelous book that will make you look on this rich country with fresh eyes.