Foreign Language Fiction, Historical, Spanish & Portuguese, Contemporary, Literature 

El dia de su muerte, Julio Carrion, poderoso hombre de negocios cuya fortuna se remonta a los años del franquismo, deja a sus hijos una sustanciosa herencia pero tambien muchos puntos oscuros de su pasado y de su experiencia en la Guerra Civil y en la Division Azul. En su entierro, en febrero de 2005, su hijo Alvaro, el unico que no ha querido dedicarse a los negocios familiares, se sorprende por la presencia de una mujer joven y atractiva, a la que nadie habia visto antes y que parece delatar aspectos desconocidos de la vida intima de su padre. Raquel Fernandez Perea, por su parte, hija y nieta de exiliados en Francia, lo sabe en cambio casi todo sobre el pasado de sus progenitores y abuelos, a los que ha preguntado sobre su experiencia de la guerra y del exilio. Para ella solo una historia permanece sin aclarar: la de una tarde en que acompaño a su abuelo, recien regresado a Madrid, y visitaron a unos desconocidos con los que intuyo que existia una deuda pendiente. Alvaro y Raquel estan condenados a encontrarse porque sus respectivas historias familiares, que son tambien la historia de muchas familias en España, desde la Guerra Civil hasta la Transicion, forman parte de si mismos y explican ademas sus origenes, su presente. Tambien porque, sin saberlo, se sentiran atraidos sin remedio. Con El corazon helado Almudena Grandes nos entrega sin duda su novela mas ambiciosa, en la que traza a traves de dos familias un panorama emocionante de la historia reciente de nuestro pais, y tambien del conflicto de las nuevas generaciones con la memoria. / The novel begins in a cemetery in a small town called Torrelodones on the outskirts of Madrid. Alvaro Carrion Gonzalez is attending the funeral of his father, a man of tremendous wealth and influence in Madrid whose power dates back to the years of Franco's dictatorship. As the family stand by the graveside, Alvaro notices a stranger, a young and attractive woman, who seems inordinately interested in the family. Alvaro wonders what part this woman played in his father's life and his questions deepen when the family inherits an enormous amount of money that is a surprise even to them. In his father's study Alvaro discovers an old folder with letters sent to his father in Russia between 1941 and 1943, faded photos of people he never met, and a locked grey metal box. The woman is Raquel Fernandez Perea, the daughter of Spaniards who fled Spain during the Civil War and who spent most of her childhood in France before returning to Spain during the 1970s. One episode in her past has had a particularly marked effect - the only time she ever saw her grandfather cry. When fate brings Raquel and Alvaro together, they feel an overwhelming attraction, but discover just how deeply these old family stories will affect their own lives. The Frozen Heart is a passionate and utterly compelling novel that encapsulates the complexities of a war that split families apart, father against sons, brothers against brothers, wives against husbands. It describes the political and personal fall-out in a country that consumed itself in a thumping good read filled with love, deceit, revenge and betrayal. - from Amzon