María Dueñas

A sweeping historical novel featuring the young Sira Quiroga, who begins by cleaning the floors of the atelier where her mother is a seamstress and ends up as a sought-after fashion designer in World War II. Using her skills as a dressmaker to connect with the high society ladies, she ferrets out Nazi secrets and passes that information on to the British via Morse code embedded in dress patterns.

Wow … what a fascinating and engaging read. This is Dueñas’s debut work, but it sure reads show more like the work of an accomplished storyteller. The novel starts off slowly and I was pretty disappointed in the young Sira and the poor choices she made with respect to men. But once she was forced to make her own way (abandoned and penniless in Morocco of all places), the story really picked up.

I loved the way that she grew as a character, coming into her own while carefully observing and learning from her friends, neighbors and clients. Her relationships are wonderfully complex – from the police inspector, to her landlady, to her neighbor and friend, Felix, to the glamorous Rosalinda Fox, and her stoic mother.

I’ve read many novels set in WW2 but only one previous one set in Spain (Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls). What sets this apart is that is mostly deals with the “women left behind.” The ways in which women and men who were not at the forefront of the fighting dealt with the ramifications of the wars, both the Spanish Civil War and WW2. Dueñas fills the novel with details of life “at home” during this time frame: in Madrid, Morocco and Lisbon. The shortages, the black market, the unusual alliances.

Of course, there are real-life people in the book; you cannot set a novel at this place and during this time frame and completely avoid mentioning Hitler or Franco. But I was surprised to discover that Rosalinda Fox was a real woman. Sira is a totally fictitious character, but Dueñas inserts her into the history of the time in a way that is believable.

I understand that there is a Spanish telenovela (soap opera / mini-series) available on Netflix (with subtitles). One of my friends commented that she was hooked on it and loved the ending when Sira is reunited with her mother. Once I told her that the soap opera ending is barely at the half-way point in the novel, she set out to get the book.

I recommend this to anyone who loves a fast-paced novel, with fascinating characters, and a strong female lead. The final scene when she decides to take matters into her own hands and go forward on her own terms is marvelous. I wanted to stand up and cheer! show less

Set in Spain, Morocco, and Portugal during the Spanish Civil War and World War II, this book tells the story of Sira, a poor seamstress born in Madrid, who transforms into an acclaimed designer. Sira falls in love and migrates to Morocco during the Spanish Civil War, where she endures many hardships and must remake her life. She is swept up in the turbulent events of the era, including politics and espionage.

This is the type of historical fiction I enjoy. The author sets the story around show more fictional characters and supplements the narrative with real people. It feels authentic to the time period. The story includes romantic relationships, but it is not primarily a romance. Sira must find an inner core of strength to overcome many obstacles, and her character growth is noticeable. The storyline is stitched together in segments that portray the main events in Sira’s life, which seems appropriate in a novel about a seamstress. There is a lot going on in this novel and it offers a pleasing mix of character development and plot. The pace ramps up in the second half when the espionage storyline kicks in.

The story is narrated by Sira, looking back on her life. “And that is my story, or at least that’s how I remember it, perhaps varnished over with the sheen that decades and nostalgia give to things. What happened in Spain after the European war, as well as the traces of many people who have passed through this account—Beigbeder, Rosalinda Fox, Serrano Suñer, and others—can be found in history books and archives, and in the memories of older generations. Their comings and goings, their glories and miseries were objective facts that in their day filled newspapers and fed the salons and the clusters of people gossiping on street corners.”

I particularly enjoyed the depiction of life in Tétouan , Morocco. The author does a great job of establishing an ambiance of color and activity. The writing style is detailed, perhaps occasionally too detailed, but overall, it is an entertaining piece of historical fiction. show less

Looking at any book, a reader never has an idea of whether it is going to be a pleasing gift from the author or a slog of monumental proportions. When the book is a long one, this crap shoot has the potential to be exponentially better or worse. Maria Duenas' fantastic and epic, long novel The Time in Between definitely falls into the gift to the reader category. It is a completely riveting and fascinating tale of self-determination, espionage, and intrigue.

Sira Quiroga is a young woman show more learning her trade as a seamstress from her mother, engaged to a kind and constant if less than exciting man, and living in Madrid on the eve of the civil war that rent the country asunder. A chance encounter with a typewriter salesman sets Sira on a new course, breaking her engagement, meeting her father for the first time, and following her lover to an unexpected life in Morocco. Starting out innocent, naive, and stupidly trusting, Sira is forced by circumstances to adapt, mature, and take control of her own life. She makes influential friends and gains entre into a world she never imagined, one of politics and intrigue in the Spanish Protectorate in Morocco. As the dressmaker to the wives and mistresses of the Spanish officials and the leading Nazis in Africa, she has a front row seat to the rise of Franco and to the machinations behind the scenes as World War Two devastates Europe. Sweeping from Madrid to Morocco and back to Madrid, the scope of the novel is vast and complete.

Duenas' blending of fictional characters and actual historical characters gives a weight to Sira, later known as Arish's, trajectory and character development. The time and places of the novel are fascinating and the truth behind the creation of new spies, people previously unconnected with MI5, is engrossing. The plot is riveting and the narrative tension stays steady throughout the first half, ratcheting up as the stakes increase in the second half of the novel. The secondary characters are appealing and if their functions are sometimes a tad too coincidental with Sira's needs, the appeal and attraction of the story as a whole completely forgives this. Readers may find it takes a while to get into the story but once they do, they will be richly rewarded by this tale of a self-made woman who ultimately helps to plot the course of history. show less

Set in Spain, Morocco, and Portugal during the Spanish Civil War and World War II, this book tells the story of Sira, a poor seamstress born in Madrid, who transforms into an acclaimed designer. Sira falls in love and migrates to Morocco during the Spanish Civil War, where she endures many hardships and must remake her life. She is swept up in the turbulent events of the era, including politics and espionage.

This is the type of historical fiction I enjoy. The author sets the story around show more fictional characters and supplements the narrative with real people. It feels authentic to the time period. The story includes romantic relationships, but it is not primarily a romance. Sira must find an inner core of strength to overcome many obstacles, and her character growth is noticeable. The storyline is stitched together in segments that portray the main events in Sira’s life, which seems appropriate in a novel about a seamstress. There is a lot going on in this novel and it offers a pleasing mix of character development and plot. The pace ramps up in the second half when the espionage storyline kicks in.

The story is narrated by Sira, looking back on her life. “And that is my story, or at least that’s how I remember it, perhaps varnished over with the sheen that decades and nostalgia give to things. What happened in Spain after the European war, as well as the traces of many people who have passed through this account—Beigbeder, Rosalinda Fox, Serrano Suñer, and others—can be found in history books and archives, and in the memories of older generations. Their comings and goings, their glories and miseries were objective facts that in their day filled newspapers and fed the salons and the clusters of people gossiping on street corners.”

I particularly enjoyed the depiction of life in Tétouan , Morocco. The author does a great job of establishing an ambiance of color and activity. The writing style is detailed, perhaps occasionally too detailed, but overall, it is an entertaining piece of historical fiction. show less