The Wrong Blood

Resumen del libro

'It was the month of May, or the month of June, in any case summer was near, and within only a few weeks the war would break out...'

On the cusp of the Spanish Civil War in a coastal village in the Basque country, three men stop off at Extarri's bar on their way to the wedding of Captain Herráiz to Isabel Cruces. One of the men suffers a stroke in the latrine, and this bizarre and undignified event, seemingly so incidental, marks the beginning of a powerful story about two women whose bond and whose secret will endure even in death.

Abandoned by her parents shortly after the outbreak of war, sixteen-year-old María Antonia Extarri is left at the mercy of the soldiers taking up residence in the bar - and she is raped. Isabel, meanwhile, enjoys a blissful honeymoon with her Captain in Biarritz, but just months later, the valiant Herráiz is shot as a traitor. Both María and Isabel suddenly find themselves violently altered, alone, and pregnant. A crippled young doctor, Castro, is the only witness to the mysterious and silent agreement these two women form in the loneliness and desperation of their mutual suffering.