tg ee Ces Spies in Postwar Spain Winter in Maid By C.J. Sanson. New ‘York: Viking, 2008. 536 pp. $25.95. By Charles Oberndorf any, completely successful novels about the Spanish Civil War. The nature of the war is enormous, and the fine novels that do exist, such as Javier Cercas’ Soldiers of Selamis, focus on one ineident or one aspect ofthe war. On the other hand, the fetid compost heap of the postwvar peried seems to have Jeri carom caused the flowering of much good fiction, whether they be masterpieces stich as Camilo José Colas The Hive and Juan Mared’s The Faller or entor- tainments such as Carlos Fuiz Zalén’ ‘The Shadow af the Wind and the recently released Winter in Madrid It’s 1040, and Harry Bret, sholl- shocked by the Battle of Dunkick, is recruited by MES, During his years at a prestigious boarding school, Harry had befriended Sandy Forsyth, Forsyth is nove in Madrid conducting, some kind of shady dealings involving key players in the Spanish govern- ment. British Intelligence is working to make sure that Franco doesn’t become a full-fledged ally of the Germans, and they want Harry to contac! Foteyth, renew their friendship, and find out whathe’sup to. While in boarding school, Harry had also befriended Forsyth’s polar opposite, Bernie Piper, a working- class scholarship boy and in ardent communist, Bernie had joined the International Brigades and disap- ‘peared during the Battle of Jarama His girlfriend, Red Cross nurse Basbara Clare, askesl Harry to come to Spain in 1936 to try to find out what ‘had happened to Beri. Now, in 1940, a desponclent ‘Barbara has left the Red Cross and is Forsyth’ girlfriend. While Harry is trying to uncover Forsyth’ business plans, Barbara is contacted by a des- perately impoverished man. His ‘brother works as a guard at aniso- Jated prison camp for Republican soldiers. The brother has seen Bernie Piper. For the right amount of money, he will help him escape. These plotlines all converge, though at times I found myself wish- ing fora litte more John Le Carxé ‘complexity or moral ambiguity. The novel’ first quarter does an expert jab of using dramatic flashbacks to estab- lish character and place, and the last supported the Republic. Good people comprised the Republic. (We meet a number of those geod people suffer ing under fascism.) Sure, there were communists and for the mest part they were the bad apples of left-wing Spain, but rot the heart and soul of the Republic, Bani Piper, for most of the novel, seems to be the only coms munis whe hasn't had his soul tovisted to make him capable of Stalinist treachery. ‘The best scenes in the novel are set in the Republican prison camp. The tensions and conflicts amid gruel- ing conditiens bring out the best and the worst ol the characters, so we get complex pertraitsef a young priest, a devoted Republican, and a conilicted prison guard. CJ. Sanson, who is known in Britain for a sories of mysteries sot in ‘Tudor England, has a great sense of place and an ability te dramatize key ‘moments in history. I you want to givesomeone a sense of why the Spanish Civil War was such an impor- tant event inits day, this nevel can do RT iad RCM celle www.alba-valb.org quarter moves along at great speed. ‘The middle suffers a itfor several reasons First, the novel isa romance aswell as a mystery and espionage thriller, and the romance scenes just don't work well. Second, the number of flashbacks seem to multiply. Thind, Sanson works too hard to make sure ‘we get the point ofhis history lesson: the western democracies should have the trick. I's not a perfect novel, politi- cally or aesthetically, but it works well as an entertainment and as a fictional window on the dark, sad landscape that was postwar Spain. EY Charles Obendorfis 2 novelist, book reviewer, and English teacher. He is at workon a bizaraphical novel about Abraham Lircoln-vet Abe Osherof.