Actual rating: 2.5 stars

This is a difficult book not only to rate but to also review. I think that overall I enjoyed it, but then again, there were times that I was actively making myself read, so that I could finish it.

Let's take it from the start. This book takes place a little while before Franco comes in power in Spain and takes us from that point all the way to 1990s. Quite a lot of years if you ask me and not only that, these are years when the world was in political turmoil and so we have a lot of ground to cover! We follow 2 families, the Dalmau's and the del Solar's, as their lives interweave through the years.

What I believe hindered my enjoyment is this. On one hand, we go through all these years, from Spain, to Chile to Venezuela and back to Chile, while history is furiously writing itself and I felt like the historical aspect was a bit lacking. There were mentions of course of Franco, Pinochet, political refugees, etc but in a, according to my personal opinion, superficial level. I craved more, I love history and this book mentioned things I already knew, instead of diving just a little bit deeper.

What I mentioned above would have been fine, if we explored the characters more closely. But I felt that didn't happen as well. I couldn't connect with any of them and even though I really respected Roser at some points, generally I quite disliked her.

This book is a little over 300 pages long and in that page count, it is attempted to not only travel through 50 years of Spanish & Chilean history, but also follow a number of characters through their whole lives. I think that these two goals weren't really met, because the book was short. A few 100 more pages maybe would have done the trick, giving the reader more time with the story and allowing the author to elaborate more on the important historic events and her characters' inner world.