- Paperback: 784 pages
- Publisher: W&N; Export - Export Paperback edition (25 Mar 2010)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 029784489X
- ISBN-13: 978-0297844891
- Product Dimensions: 23.2 x 15.2 x 4.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 3,616,967 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
The Frozen Heart
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Product details |
Product Description
Review
"Almudena Grandes is one of the most entertaining and powerful literary novelists now writing in Spanish. The Frozen Heart is a great book - one of the most fully engaged and compelling stories I've ever read." (PETER FLORENCE, DIRECTOR, HAY ON WYE FESTIVAL )
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Book Description
A sweeping epic saga about the Spanish Civil War - the Spanish Dr Zhivago
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Spanning 75 years of recent Spanish history, this is the story of two families and how their love and trust are corrupted by their experiences in the Spanish Civil War and its aftermath. Raquel and Alvaro meet at Alvaro's father's funeral, unaware that their relationship will open up old wounds, expose betrayals and force new allegiances.
If you have read an Almudena Grandes novel before, then you will be familiar with the protagonists here - rich, adulterous and often unsympathetic 'madrilenos' with complex family backgrounds. In fact, at the beginning of the novel these family trees are almost too complicated to understand. While it might be easier for Spaniards, especially ones who grew up in rural settings, to identify family ties going back several generations, the English-speaking reader might find it difficult to get a handle on how the main characters are related. However, the story unravels as it is told from different viewpoints, so this becomes clearer as the book progresses.
Using short-term and long-term flashbacks, echoing how Anita eventually tells Raquel the family secrets, the novel recounts the history of the two families in detail. So much so, that by the end of its 700+ pages, I was flagging slightly under the weight of this layering of the 'truth'. Grandes, though, does not get bogged down in the complexity of the Civil War, with the factions and key events explained through believable, heart-rending experiences, and we never lose sight of its impact on the novel's well-drawn, believable characters.
'The Frozen Heart' is a long book, so readers interested in Grandes might like to try her previous novel, `The Wind from the East', as a practice run as it has a similarly compulsive narrative but in a more contemporary setting. I would also especially recommend this novel to any readers dissatisfied with Victoria Hislop's unengaging, clumsy treatment of the Spanish Civil War in 'The Return'. 'The Frozen Heart' is both history lesson and an essay on modern Spain, family saga and political commentary, and I can thoroughly recommend it as a `good read'.
If you have read an Almudena Grandes novel before, then you will be familiar with the protagonists here - rich, adulterous and often unsympathetic 'madrilenos' with complex family backgrounds. In fact, at the beginning of the novel these family trees are almost too complicated to understand. While it might be easier for Spaniards, especially ones who grew up in rural settings, to identify family ties going back several generations, the English-speaking reader might find it difficult to get a handle on how the main characters are related. However, the story unravels as it is told from different viewpoints, so this becomes clearer as the book progresses.
Using short-term and long-term flashbacks, echoing how Anita eventually tells Raquel the family secrets, the novel recounts the history of the two families in detail. So much so, that by the end of its 700+ pages, I was flagging slightly under the weight of this layering of the 'truth'. Grandes, though, does not get bogged down in the complexity of the Civil War, with the factions and key events explained through believable, heart-rending experiences, and we never lose sight of its impact on the novel's well-drawn, believable characters.
'The Frozen Heart' is a long book, so readers interested in Grandes might like to try her previous novel, `The Wind from the East', as a practice run as it has a similarly compulsive narrative but in a more contemporary setting. I would also especially recommend this novel to any readers dissatisfied with Victoria Hislop's unengaging, clumsy treatment of the Spanish Civil War in 'The Return'. 'The Frozen Heart' is both history lesson and an essay on modern Spain, family saga and political commentary, and I can thoroughly recommend it as a `good read'.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Almudena Grandes' previous novel to be translated into English was "The wind from the East", a complex work tracing the histories of the two principal characters and a compelling holiday read. This is something quite different: a magnificent novel of Spanish history covering the years from and before the civil war. I cannot understand why a review has not appeared in English newspapers, for this must be one of the most important Spanish novels to be published in the last decade.
The novel traces the parallel lives of members of an extended family over the years from the 1930s to the present. The characters are very well drawn, their stories compelling and the language, even in translation, poetic and moving.
The novel traces the parallel lives of members of an extended family over the years from the 1930s to the present. The characters are very well drawn, their stories compelling and the language, even in translation, poetic and moving.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
A must read for everyone who wants to understand the Spanish civil war from a human perspective
27 May 2011
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Wow what an amazing book. I absolutely loved every word, every minute. So cleverly written - great subplots but most of all a magnificent saga based in Spain from which I understood how absolutely tragic the whole civil war and world war II must have been for all families in Spain and how important it is that we do understand this now. So beautifully written. I finished the book today and I feel lost. I need to start over again!!
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Was this review helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Fantastic Novel, that stays with you when finished.
This book is brilliant. Following two families, it shows the effects of the Spanish Civil War, and its aftermath, and of World War II, and how this carried on into the next... Read more
Published 8 months ago by K. Ibbotson
Too long, too many Spanish names, too many characters
This book was chosen by my reading group and I looked forward to the prospect of a 'good read' with plenty of content. Read more
Published 20 months ago by J.A. TIMS
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
