Description: Two sisters return to the small parish of Tierra de Châa in Galicia after a long absence, to the former home of their grandfather, from which they fled when they were just children. When news arrives that the famous American actress Ava Gardner will be shooting a movie in Spain and that lookalikes are wanted, the sisters have a chance to make their dreams come true. But the past is catching up with the present, and the family secrets that led to the Winterlings' return won't stay buried for long.
Brief description:
Cristina Sánchez-Andrade (Santiago de Compostela, Spain, 1968) is the author of eight novels, including Ya no pisa la tierra tu rey (Your King No Longer Walks this Earth), which won the Guadalajara International Book Fair's prestigious Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz literary prize in 2005, and Las Inviernas (The Winterlings), which was a finalist for the Herralde Novel Prize in 2013. Her work has been translated into English, Portuguese, Italian, Polish and Russian. She lives in Madrid.
Review Quotes:
"[The Winterlings] satisfies on multiple levels, uses a wide lens to observe the difficulties of returning home only to encounter a community still pickled in the past . . . Sánchez-Andrade keeps it real . . . She references an oral storytelling tradition in the family passed down through her aunts, and she thanks her mother for helping her search for family memories. Chekov famously told writers that if they hang a rifle on a wall in chapter one, the rifle must go off in chapter two or three. That Sánchez-Andrade deliciously substitutes an octopus for a rifle says something for her ingenious novel, full of eccentric details that anchor it to a very specific reality."
--Priyanka Kumar, Santa Fe New Mexican