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This week I'll talk about "The time in between ", author Maria Duenas.

I also discovered, with immense regret, that at any time and without apparent cause everything that we believe can collapse, take another path, change trajectory and start changing.

The book is set in Spain in the 30s, during the revolution, the period of Francisco Franco to understand, the internal clashes were between nationalists and republicans. During this period and before the outbreak of the war the economic situation was very bad and Spain was in a deep state of poverty. The war was then followed by a fascist dictatorship headed by Francisco Franco.

The protagonist of the book Sira lives a calm and serene appearance, works as a seamstress with her mother and has the typical aspirations of women of her age.

Humble aspirations, a husband, a simple job, a family.

With poverty her life changes, the work in the store falls exponentially and Sira begins to feel that pulls a bad air. Spain is in turmoil and the crisis is upon us.

Sira gets engaged with a gentle and benevolent man, endowed with a good job and a deep affection for him.

Yet the meekness of Ignacio, her boyfriend is not enough to feed her soul and when she goes to buy a Hispano Olivetti to start a new job, procured by his boyfriend, crosses the eyes of a man and loses her mind.

He is Ramiro Arribas, handsome, arrogant and sure of himself, quite the opposite of the tender Ignacio. Sira tries to resist Ramiro's flattery but then succumbs to temptation, sending a peaceful marriage and an ordinary and simple life upstream. Sira wants more, wants fire, wants Ramiro.

Ramiro transports her into a worldly universe, into a feverish life full of passions and emotions, many sensations that make her head spin and make her feel drunk with love.

Sira has never met her father who decides to get himself alive in the pre-war riot and advises her to flee by giving her a huge sum of money, the young woman asks for advice from her beloved Ramiro who decides to take the reins of their situation, take care of the money and of escape. Sira leaves her mother with regret but also with relief, the woman disapproved her after leaving the good Ignacio

The destination chosen for the escape is Tangiers, in Morocco, the early times the climate makes the two lovers enthusiastic, there is fervor, there is a new world and many people with a fine intellect and a thousand ideas to make their life interesting and exciting.
But Sira is increasingly tired, nervous and indolent, often leaves only Ramiro, she no longer tolerates the worldly rhythms, until he leaves her alone, running away with the money and abandoning her full of debts up to the neck and with a son in her belly.

Sira escapes again and her life is shaken another time, first by the meeting with the smuggler Candelaria then when the young woman decides to take over her life using her talent.

The book has been for a long time at the top of the Spanish charts and this is not surprising, there is nothing that misses you, history, passion, sweetness, adventure, politics!