The Bonfires

Seix Barral recovers the best novel by a forgotten author of contemporary Spanish literature, a pioneer in portraying the inner world of women and twice winner of the Planeta Prize.

In a town in a small, provincial city like Mallorca in the 1960s, two completely different women seek a way out of a routine life in a suffocating Spain that wants to be modern and cosmopolitan but remains trapped in the miseries and contradictions of Francoism. On one hand, Sibila, a former model, seeks in other men the desire her husband denies her, tormented by the memory of a past life in Paris that will not return; and on the other hand, Asunción, a schoolteacher who faces the loss of professional vocation and her status as a “spinster.”

Winner of the Planeta Prize in 1964, The Bonfires is Concha Alós’s best novel and a book that bravely explores issues such as desire, social class, power relations with men, and the professional frustration of two women facing the stereotypes of the time.

Rich in psychological depth, Las hogueras delves into the consequences of past decisions on present lives.

A powerful exploration of the clash between tradition and modernity in post-war Spain.