Spanish book about women who wander

Spanish book about women who wander

Now, this book does have a title that school boys and girls may well find funny. It’s made me chuckle over the years during some tough interpreting exams. Anyway, when  I found this on my travels in Madrid in December, I realised it was the type of read I hadn’t come across before.

It has the title of Women Walking in English but I think wander sounds more like it!

This is a lovely artistic book about women who love to walk around in the great outdoors. This is the cover of the Spanish version which caught my eye:

As someone who loves to walk and discover nature, visit beauty spots, spend time in parks, it’s never occurred to me that many years ago, women would not have had the same freedoms than they have now.

Lighthouse Walk at Biarritz (c) Joaquin de Sorolla y Bastida

Women Walking

Imagine a time where you would need a chaperone to be able to take a walk, visit a park or just enjoy being outside. Rich women had very strong rules to follow and society’s etiquette to conform to. They might have had more money and more comfortable lives, but it made me think of a gilded cage type scenario. Lots of money, a wealthy husband but boredom and chaperones as the only companions!

The book is separated into four sections to show how these freedoms have changed over the years. I found it tricky to realise that often women had just been allowed to walk in the confines of their own garden! The illustrations in the book are paintings and works of art which both tell a story of their own and start a conversation about women in society.

This image, this painting, really resonated with me in particular. Not walking but sitting and reading….

Women sitting reading

The Travelling Companions (c) Augustus Leopold Egg

Quotes from famous women such as Virginia Woolf and Simone de Beauvoir really made this book for me.

This book is in Spanish, the author is German and the paintings are from all over the world. This is quite a treat and a very unusual but brilliant way of highlighting a serious subject in a very abstract and easy to access way.

Love the way you can find a book in one language, originally written in another, but one where the language within is actually universal.

Susan  Booktrailer x