The Fountains of Silence

Name: The Fountains of Silence
Rating: 4.32 (91005 reviews)

by Ruta Sepetys

Amazon

4.3(91,005)

Madrid, 1957. Daniel Matheson, the eighteen-year-old son of a wealthy American oilman, visits Spain with his parents and uses his camera to look beyond the polished image presented to foreign tourists. He meets Ana, a hotel maid whose family still lives with the poverty, fear and political consequences created by the Spanish Civil War and Francisco Franco’s dictatorship.

Daniel’s photographs and his relationship with Ana expose secrets protected by censorship, social hierarchy and official silence. Their growing attachment draws both families towards painful questions about stolen identities, political repression and the price paid by ordinary Spaniards when a regime controls not only public history but also the private record of who belongs to whom.