Cover of Winter in Madrid

Winter in Madrid

A vivid and haunting depiction of wartime Spain, Winter in Madrid is an intimate and riveting tale that offers a remarkable sense of history unfolding and the profound impact of impossible choices.

Read more

Fans of Carlos Ruiz Zafon's The Shadow of the Wind and Sebastian Faulks's Birdsong will fall in love with Winter in Madrid, the arresting new novel from C. J. Sansom. In September 1940, the Spanish Civil War is over and Madrid lies in ruins while the Germans continue their march through Europe. Britain stands alone as General Franco considers whether to abandon neutrality and enter the war.

Into this uncertain world comes Harry Brett, a privileged young man who was recently traumatized by his experience in Dunkirk and is now a reluctant spy for the British Secret Service. Sent to gain the confidence of Sandy Forsyth, an old school friend turned shadowy Madrid businessman, Brett finds himself involved in a dangerous game and surrounded by memories. Meanwhile, Sandy's girlfriend, ex-Red Cross nurse Barbara Clare, is engaged in a secret mission of her own—to find her former lover Bernie Piper, whose passion for the Communist cause led him into the International Brigades and who vanished on the bloody battlefields of the Jarama. In a vivid and haunting depiction of wartime Spain, Winter in Madrid is an intimate and riveting tale that offers a remarkable sense of history unfolding and the profound impact of impossible choices.

Audience
adult
Length
long · 549 pages

Click a tag to see books like this one that share it. Point at it (on a phone, tap it) for less of it instead.

Read it? Sign in to help tag it.

Liked Winter in Madrid? Here’s where I’d start.

These suit anyone who liked Winter in Madrid. Sign in and mark a few books for picks shaped around your own taste.

  1. Guernica Shares historical fiction, Spain, fiction
  2. The Spanish Bow Shares historical fiction, Spain, fiction
  3. I am Venus: A Novel Shares historical fiction, Spain, fiction
  4. Villa Triste Shares historical fiction, fiction, World War II

“People who read Winter in Madrid tend to reach for these next.”

  1. Ghosts of Spain: Travels Through Spain and Its Silent Past
  2. The Street Philosopher
  3. Rosie's War
  4. Charlotte Gray

“If you want more of the same (historical fiction about travel), start with these.”

  1. The Time in Between
  2. A Thunderous Whisper
  3. The German Woman
  4. Black Roses

“If it was the Spain that hooked you, try one of these.”

  1. The Poet's Wife
  2. The Alhambra Decree
  3. The Lost Diary of Don Juan: An Account of the True Arts of Passion and the Perilous Adventure of Love
  4. The Perfume Garden

“These start from a similar idea, even if they go somewhere else with it.”

  1. Some Sunny Day
  2. My History: A Memoir of Growing Up
  3. No Time For Romance
  4. Ordinary Heroes