At the Castellana Hilton in 1957 Madrid, eighteen-year-old Daniel Matheson connects with Ana Moreno through photography and fate as Daniel discovers the incredibly dark side of the city under Generalissimo Franco's rule.
...[a] stunning new novel ... With The Fountains of Silence, Sepetys has once again written gripping historical fiction with great crossover appeal to adult readers, combining impeccable research with sweeping storytelling.
Ruta Sepetys last tore our hearts out with Salt to the Sea, her exploration of the human condition as seen through the eyes of refugees fleeing World War II. In her new book, The Fountains of Silence, she is intent on once again slaying us with history that is full of both beauty and terror ... The Fountains of Silence has everything I could possibly ask for in a work of historical fiction: Vivid and deeply researched details about a place and time I know little about, slowly unspooling mystery, intricately drawn characters who feel of their time but deeply relatable, forbidden romance, and the intense pathos of learning about a dark and terrible stretch of history that offers an alarming reflection of the times we're living in. Every time I picked it up to continue reading, I was immediately immersed, plunging back into its tumult of love, fear, anger, and hope ... I'm not a fan of books that moralize and tell me how to feel, and somehow The Fountains of Silence manages to be a story that is deeply concerned with morality and justice without ever feeling preach ... Sepetys never says, look at this, then go and watch the news. She doesn't have to. The Fountains of Silence may be about things that went unsaid for decades, but it speaks its truth loud and clear.
In another meticulously researched novel, Sepetys...offers a captivating glimpse into Franco’s Spain, a region awash in secrets and misinformation. As Sepetys slowly unspools hard truths about the era, such as the prevalence of babies stolen from poor, Republican families, the facts become increasingly impossible to ignore, both for the reader and for Daniel. The romance ultimately takes center stage, but the troubling events in the margins add terrifyingly high stakes to Daniel and Ana’s relationship. For all her extensive, careful research...Sepetys doesn’t overwhelm readers with facts; rather, she tells a moving story made even more powerful by its placement in a lesser-known historical moment. Captivating, deft, and illuminating historical fiction.
