Ghosts of Spain: Travels Through a Country's Hidden Past

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On a trip to Spain a few years ago, I needed to make a change to my train ticket from Madrid to Malaga. This book couldn't decide if it wanted to be a history book, sociology report, memoir or political recap.

Ghosts of Spain - Books - Review - The New Giles Tremlett - Ghosts of Spain - Books - Review - The New

with the] sort of insight that vindicates his approach to a deeply traditional and fast-changing land. If anyone is living in Spain as an immigrant, then this book will shed a lot of light on the country for you!

He graduated in Human Sciences at the University of Oxford in 1984 and has also studied at the Universities of Barcelona and Lisbon. But repression and censorship expunged facts of death, torture and persecution, silenced memories and compounded suffering, long after Franco's death in 1975. His book Ghosts of Spain: Travels through a country's hidden past (2007) [3] was translated into five languages. Through thirteen chapters, Tremlett examines some of the political fault-lines that run through the country. I was amazed towards the end of the book where Giles mentioned the opportunity to seek Spanish citizenship by virtue of being a descendent of a Spaniard who sought political exile.

Ghosts of Spain by Giles Tremlett | Open Library Ghosts of Spain by Giles Tremlett | Open Library

This Ghosts of Spainsummary takes a look at a book that goes into depth about the country’s recent history which includes the Civil war and the reign of General Franco. Although a lot has changed since then, the country has struggled to come to terms with the legacy of the Civil War and wounds have not healed despite the length of time that has passed. Although Tremlett packs an impressive amount of information into the book, his analyses are often superficial, or just nonexistent. At least some sort of bookend effect could have turned this into a classic instead of an important book to read if you're spending significant time in the country.

Tremlett, in contrast, takes a much more personal approach – repeatedly drawing on his own particular experience to illustrate a general point, grounding his analysis in the quotidian details of ordinary life.