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The Butterfly Effect
Book Review: A Vineyard in Andalusia, by Maria Dueñas
For holiday reading I decided I wanted something sufficiently detached from the present, so this work sale book fitted well. Despite the title, the story begins in Mexico: it is 1861, and Mauro Larrera has just found out the war in the United States has lost him a shipment of mining equipment. Living close to the edge, he is financially ruined by this loss, but he is determined to keep up appearances as a wealthy mine-owner, borrowing from a money-lender on eye-watering terms while he considers how to recover.
He decides to seek short-term opportunities in Cuba, but eventually finds his way to Spain, having become the owner of a dilapidated house, a local vineyard and winery, in Jerez. Initially he intends to sell the properties, but various complexities arise.
An entertaining mixture of researched historical authenticity and well-trodden literary tropes, the story contains a number of surprising twists as it proceeds to its almost-but-not-quite predictable conclusion. The only anachronism I spotted was the use of the word "micro-organism", which was first used in 1880, though it's possible that's a translation error rather than a literal in the original. In any case it doesn't detract from the atmospheric quality conveyed by the book.
For holiday reading I decided I wanted something sufficiently detached from the present, so this work sale book fitted well. Despite the title, the story begins in Mexico: it is 1861, and Mauro Larrera has just found out the war in the United States has lost him a shipment of mining equipment. Living close to the edge, he is financially ruined by this loss, but he is determined to keep up appearances as a wealthy mine-owner, borrowing from a money-lender on eye-watering terms while he considers how to recover.
He decides to seek short-term opportunities in Cuba, but eventually finds his way to Spain, having become the owner of a dilapidated house, a local vineyard and winery, in Jerez. Initially he intends to sell the properties, but various complexities arise.
An entertaining mixture of researched historical authenticity and well-trodden literary tropes, the story contains a number of surprising twists as it proceeds to its almost-but-not-quite predictable conclusion. The only anachronism I spotted was the use of the word "micro-organism", which was first used in 1880, though it's possible that's a translation error rather than a literal in the original. In any case it doesn't detract from the atmospheric quality conveyed by the book.