Why a Booktrail?
1950s: Alexandra de Falla, a half-English, half-Spanish young writer travels to Spain to be reunited with her long-estranged family.
Indiscretion
What you need to know before your trail
Alexandra de Falla travels to Spain to be reunited with her long-estranged family but soon realises that the de Fallas are riven by seething emotions. Moreover, Andalucia is a strange places to her with such different customs and traditions. Among the strange characters and sultry heat of this country, she meets the man who awakens emotions she hardly knew existed. But their path is strewn with obstacles: dangerous rivals, unpredictable events, and inevitable indiscretions.
What does Alexandra’s destiny hold for her in this flamboyant land of drama and all-consuming passions, where blood is ritually poured on to the sands of sun-drenched bullfighting arenas, mysterious gypsies are embroiled in magic and revenge, and beautiful dark-eyed dancers hide their secrets behind elegant lacy fans?
Travel Guide
Andalucia
“The hundred year old steam locomotive lurched through a parched yellow and brown countryside on worn-out tracks, winding north”
Franco’s new Spain is described as “ such a conservative country, not to mention a place broken and impoverished by civil war.
Alexandra’s journey is one of amazement as well as uncertainty. She arrives via La Linea just outside Gibraltar and gets on a train to Puerto de Santa Maria via Cadiz on the tren mixto – a train where everything and anything can travel – even chickens and more.
Jerez
The family home is in Jerez and it’s the region she begins to know well. There are many interesting locations and scene setting in the novel
Visit – the buildings where a wealthy industrial family makes sherry.The main building of this used to be a seventeenth century convent. Take that slice of history and add the Spanish words for Sherry ladle and there is authenticity and scene setting right there. The city is also known for flamenco music and sherry production in the so-called Sherry Triangle lying to the west so little details like this in the novel really add to the sense of place and time.
Booktrail Boarding Pass Information: Indiscretion
Author/Guide: Hannah Fielding Destination: Andalucia Departure Time: 1950s
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