Aikin, Susana

Herself born in Spain to a Spanish mother and English father, Aikin offers her second English-language novel (after We Shall See the Sky Sparkling). Her visceral writing effectively evokes the Spanish setting, but even with the hopeful ending the melancholy characters and their experiences make for dark reading.

Beginning and ending with letters written to her family, this novel has the feel of a serial drama. Readers of Pam Jenoff and Eva Stachniak will appreciate the strong-willed and artistically driven female character who finds her own way through difficult times.