La añoranza

Nothing leads Julia Ferré to imagine that in the spring of 1959—the same spring she turns eighteen—she will meet Bastian Ballard, a French translator living in Barcelona’s Gothic Quarter, who saves her from being pursued by the Civil Guard during a demonstration against the regime. Through Bastian—who soon becomes both her mentor and her lover—Julia discovers poetry, the forbidden verses of Machado, jazz, and a unique sanctuary. It is a refuge from both her strict family, who are aligned with the Francoist regime, and her idealistic friends, who are intent on reopening the old wounds of the war. But it is not until the Transition, twenty years later, that she discovers Bastian’s past was intimately linked to the death of Antonio Machado. This revelation sets her on an unexpected journey—one that forces her to delve into the scars of exile and confront the silences of a fractured country, a nation steeped in secrets.