The literary career of Paloma Sánchez-Garnica It is becoming a bibliography worthy of reaching the bottom and shape of a library of its own, rich and varied. From the first writer determined to present us with mysteries that were related to her historical training (a task in which she found comparisons even with Umberto Eco), we move on to other types of mysteries that emerge more from the inside out, from the depths of characters who face their destinies as that great enigma between predestination and the rule of the will in an intense scenography of times not so distant.
Something like a Maria Dueñas committed to that feminism of survival of the unflattering twentieth century, but that, thanks to little stories like these transformed into almost tangible fictions, changed the destiny of the woman of the twenty-first century.
And there are already two comparisons ... But Paloma is elusive when it comes to finding parallels. And nothing better than escaping from labels to prosper, probing new narrative options, ultimately surprising readers around the world.
The cultural baggage, in cahoots with the imagination of a writer like Paloma, allows her the most fascinating combinations, those that make you open a new book without knowing what you can rely on but knowing that you must hold on tight to enjoy an intense experience.
Top 3 recommended books by Paloma Sanchez-Garnica
Last days in Berlin
The interwar period was about to reach its last extreme of desolation and death. 1939 was an unsuspected frontier for a multitude of people who would be shaken from the heart of Europe by the madness of Nazism. But there were still a few years left for that and, strangely, the dead calm since Hitler seized power in Germany could be made even worse by his unexpected cruelty.
When Yuri Santacruz attended Adolf Hitler's appointment as chancellor, he could not imagine how much his life in Berlin would change. He had arrived there a few months ago, having fled, together with part of his family, from Saint Petersburg, suffocated by a revolution that had left them with nothing. Yuri was also deprived of his mother and little brother, who were not allowed to leave the country by the Russian authorities.
Already in Berlin, his sense of justice will drive him to defend a young communist attacked by Hitler's stormtroopers. That day, in addition, he will meet his great love, Claudia. His life will take an unexpected turn, and what until then had been his highest priority, looking for his mother and brother, will be replaced by another more urgent in these troubled times: to stay alive.
The three wounds
True sepia photos, those that acquire the color of wear, decay and the silence of time, offer an aftertaste of an existential enigma. What life gave its protagonists, what manifested the surprised brightness of his photos in front of the meccano who was about to immortalize his image ... more than rich nuances for a writer like Ernesto SantamarÃa to be enchanted by that moment.
Even more so knowing that the four eyes of the young couple that contemplate him from that other side are facing the first days of a devastating war. And yes, in that frozen moment Ernesto knows that he has a new story to tell, one that can build him to the long-awaited success that every storyteller seeks, more than anything because if the simple image is capable of enthralling him, what can be told from there it reaches epic tints.
The total distance between that yesterday and today comprises 74 years, as the direct witness herself, Teresa Cifuentes, a friend of the woman portrayed, will testify for Ernesto. Only that sometimes, when one delves into the well of the past to develop a plot, it can end up being entangled by the dark transit between miseries, blood and revenge.
A well in which the only light that is discovered at the top comes from the hope of love, from the intense final need of the human being to manifest that the only thing that can guide him through life with a thread of hope that can lift him from the darkest thing is love.
Sofia's suspicion
In this novel in which the author is already recreating herself in the trade, we are invited to an eclectic story between genres of mystery and realism, overwhelming transitions for a great novel set in that dichotomous Europe, with dictatorships in the south and with walls in the east, while cities like Paris bustle in tune with the new freedoms longed for by the people.
And in that continental melting pot we accompany Daniel Sandoval towards a knowledge of the existential mystery that makes up his nature, an inalienable enchantment for anyone who is in a similar situation.
In analogy with that Europe in search of a uniform identity that seems impossible to achieve without breaking down physical and mental walls, Daniel's identity also seems to be shaken by cruel contradictions that suggest that nothing in his life has meaning anymore if one of its pillars, his mother, Sagrario, who seems not to have been such.
Daniel's father does not end up clarifying anything about that discovery. But the will to know one's origin always ends up rebelling as a need to know who we are. The trip to Paris will lead Daniel and his wife, SofÃa, rebounding through that unstable world in which everything finally ends up intermingling towards an end woven together with the fine mastery of this author.
Other interesting books by Paloma Sánchez Garnica ...
The sonata of silence
One of the greatest contrasts in the evolution of our civilization is probably the null impact on the figure and personality of women until almost the end of the twentieth century.
While the world was subjected to political, social, moral, medical, industrial and scientific changes, women were always relegated to that inferior position, as if we were condemned by the figure of an Eve who carried the inescapable guilt of humanity.
That is why writers like Paloma, in addition to many others, always find a good story to tackle that odyssey of self-improvement that women had to undertake as the most dangerous of journeys towards equality.
Marta Ribas and Antonio made up that well-matched and prosperous marriage. Until the fatality is preying on them, partly because of their own actions and another as much guilt for the unfortunate fate. And Marta must undertake that path to survival from the misgivings of others, including other women mired in their condition of being adjusted to their inferior role.
Only that Marta must get ahead for herself but also, first of all, for her daughter. It is in the solitude of the battle for one's right that the greatest need for that equality is discovered. In a world of sobriety marked by scarcity, of double morals on the tightrope of beliefs and attitudes, Marta's tragic adventure will destroy all our emotions.
I don't know how I got to this Author, I love how she writes, from the first moment of the book she hooks you into an incredible mystery story to imagine, as well as Cira's facts of history, the characters in her book La Sospecha de SofÃa are unforgettable. The book is highly recommended.
Now I don't know which of his novels to decide on.
Thank you for your excellent novels, with an exciting narrative that hooks you from the first pages. He achieves amazing endings that writers don't always achieve.
Extraordinary author with an outstanding narrative. I discovered her as a result of her book Last Days in Berlin.
The first novel I read by this author was El alma de las Piedras. I bought it after listening to an interview with the author on the SER chain and was curious. It is an excellent novel that I have read twice. It reminded me of the Pillars of the Earth in Follet. Since then I have followed her and I have read almost all her books including her latest work "Last Days in Berlin" which I loved. But of all of them, I think the one I liked the most was "Sofia's Suspicion." I really like this author as her books not only have engaging stories but are based on important historical realities and all of them are very well documented.
For me, the first novel I read by this author, The Three Wounds, is the best (by far), An extraordinary novel
Thanks, Ignacio. It usually happens that that first story feels more told from the heart.