Bedridden in the Ritz hotel-hospital in Madrid, in the middle of the Spanish Civil War, the Madrid writer Rafael Gómez decides to write his memoirs. In the last stage of the war and awaiting the entry of the national troops, he recounts a life full of events, both personally and politically and socially. From the wisdom that old age brings, she looks for the best way to face the end of her life, threatened by daily aerial bombardments, thus recalling the intense years lived with the objectivity of a professional and, at the same time, with honesty and warmth. human of a man to whom nothing prevents him from admitting his shortcomings and fears. After the loss of the last colonies (1898) and an unforeseen widowhood, the journalist arrived in the Asturian town of Gijón with the illusion of finding changes in his life. In the middle of the industrial development of the town and with the young monarchy of Alfonso XIII, he began to work for the newspaper El Noroeste. Three years later, he is responsible for covering the most important cigarette strike at the Cimadevilla cigar factory, the oldest neighborhood in the city. His friendship with two of those women makes him enjoy experiences of all kinds while he narrates what happens in a Spain of turbulent times and notable transformations. After twenty-three years in Asturias, the great robbery of the Bank of Spain perpetrated by Buenaventura Durruti's gang makes him escape to his hometown, without completely detaching himself from what really matters to him. With his back to reality, trying to forget his passion, sex and affections, he returns to the capital with the intention of continuing his journalistic work at ABC quietly. But time and distance don't always quench desire. The correspondence that he maintains with the women he leaves there becomes the protagonist of the experiences of the Second Republic and the Revolution of Asturias. These letters, the godmothers of war and the Fifth Column will make the entry of Franco's troops through Madrid's Gran Vía on April 1, 1939 not only a day of liberation and joy.

Author

Sara Manjarín Andrés. She was born in Madrid in 1963. She studied Engineering and has a professional office where she works as a quality management consultant and auditor. In her first work, she dealt with female leadership and the differences in direction between them. In the second, she addressed the entire cinematographic work of director Vicente Aranda. In this her third book she gets into the skin of a journalist and through her life experience takes us to a time as interesting as it is close to our contemporary history.