Bay of Secrets

Author/Guide: Rosanna Ley

Why a Booktrail?

1930s/present day: There is a nice mix of destinations in this book and it is a real thrill flying back and forth

ISBN: 978-1780875064
Genre: Fiction

Comment

What you need to know before your trail

Spain, 1939 – Julia is forced to enter a convent in Barcelona. She wants to keep her links to the outside world however and so volunteers in an adoption and maternity clinic. But it’s whilst working here that she uncovers a secret that places her in moral danger and she doesn’t know what she should do.

2011, Dorset: A journalist named Ruby returns to the family home in Dorset following her parent’s death but she finds more than she bargained for when secrets from the past come tumbling out including something that her parents had kept from her her whole life.

Locations

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England
C: West Dorset - Charmouth

Travel Guide

Barcelona

Two stories two very different and seemingly unconnected places.

Before the second world war, we enter the world where women are forced or encouraged into either marriage of a life of prayer. the convent in Barcelona where she ends up is at first cold and distant to her but she soon becomes acquainted and rather fond of a life in peace and quiet, She does think of what life would have been with a family of her own however.

The maternity clinic reveals the forgotten or hidden world – that of the “niños robados”, or The Lost Children of the Franco era. This is a little written about period of history and the whole sorry truth comes out. It seems that this was a wide spread practice which continued long after Franco’s death.

Dorset

From historic Spain to present day Dorset where Ruby starts to unravel the story which has threads in the present. On her journey back to Dorset, past the familiar green Dorset hills, the two settings could not be more different yet the home truths evident in both come tumbling out.

The finale as it were takes form in Fuerteventura….

Booktrailer Review

Susan @thebooktrailer :

I love books about Spain which introduce an historical element little known of, and this was a great read from Rosanna. It was a lot of things from a romantic and nostalgic look into the past, lost and forbidden secrets and two women separated by war and duty. Both strands of the story were strong and the locations, although not overly evocative, take the story into new directions. I mean what could the link between Gran Canaria and the sands of West Dorset have in common? The past and present and the threads between them I found fascinating and Rosanna really knows how to tell a story!