First published 2020
Roser carries her dead lover's child as Franco's forces crush the Spanish Republic in the late 1930s. The pregnant widow joins hundreds of thousands fleeing over the Pyrenees to France. There she meets Victor Dalmau, an army doctor and brother to her deceased partner. Neither wants marriage, but survival demands it. Poet Pablo Neruda sponsors their passage on the SS Winnipeg with 2,200 other refugees seeking sanctuary in Chile. As Europe plunges into World War II, Roser and Victor start over on a foreign continent. Their reluctant partnership faces years of hardship and adaptation in exile. They build new lives while clinging to dreams of return. Joy emerges alongside struggle as they discover friendship in unexpected places. Through decades of separation from everything familiar, hope sustains them. The possibility of reunion with their homeland drives them forward, even as they learn that belonging might exist closer than they imagined.
Genres: romance, literary-fiction, historical-fiction, war
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, found-family
Setting: Chile, France, Pyrenees, Spain
Period: 1930s, World War II
325 pages · Hardcover · Ballantine Books
Content warnings: war