Hijas del diablo

When Mariano José de Larra, a renowned journalist, commits suicide, his family is cursed. His children survive thanks to charity, and his sisters, Adela and Baldomera, must face all kinds of hardships while trying to maintain their place in bourgeois circles. For, moreover, the city of Madrid is now unstable and revolutionary, and barricades are erected on every corner, where progressives and conservatives vie for power with cannon fire. But everything changes with the arrival of King Amadeo of Savoy: Adela becomes his mistress, and Baldomera's husband, Carlos, is appointed royal physician. For a time, they are the most influential women at court; but, once again, everything collapses around them. Even so, unable to accept the inevitable, Baldomera soon decides that, to make money, there's nothing better than orchestrating a gigantic swindle… And this quickly unleashes a frantic manhunt between France and Spain. Their very fate hangs in the balance, as does the loyalty of both sisters and their need to survive. This is the story of Larra's sisters: one, the king's lover; the other, the creator of the world's first pyramid scheme. And no one but Ana B. Nieto, with her prose as effective as it is gripping and daring, can draw us into a restless Madrid and introduce us to truly marvelous characters, about whom no novel had been published before, and who so profoundly influenced the course of the 19th century.