Besos de arena

Author: Reyes Monforte
- Fiction
- Booket Planeta
- ISBN: 9788499984377
- Release Date: 08-29-2013
-Reviewed by: Maria del Carmen Rivero

Besos de arena by Reyes Monforte, a well known journalist in Spain, is initially the story of Laia, a young sahrawi, or from Western Sahara, who has been living in Spain since she was twelve. She was sent to live with a kind Spanish family for the summer who soon became her only family  after a Spanish judge decides her cardiac condition warrants her staying in Spain for a longer time. Her Spanish parents, Sandro and Leticia are then giving custody of the young girl.  Laia is a book case of the person who blends very well in her new society. She loves her new family and her new country and has a bright future ahead of her as she approaches adulthood. She has decided to study medicine and move to Madrid, with her pilot boyfriend, Julio. However ,all of this is abruptly interrupted by her family, from the Sahara, paying a visit to her in Spain.  We now enter, in an abrupt manner, a clash of civilization of major proportions.

Laia has never mentioned to her Spanish family, or as she likes to say, her only family that she was actually a slave in the refugee camps of  Tinduf.  The family that has come to claim her are actually her masters who they fill have all the rights to claim her as theirs. Laia does not confide in her family about her subservient condition in her country; she is a slave and this her secret. 

Her family claim they want to return because the mother is very ill and the sister is getting married. Laia knows this is untrue and she  knows if she leaves with them  she will be held captive again. While on the streets of Huesca, she is threaten and beaten up by them but she refuses to tell her Spanish family. Her silence and shame are the only ties she still has to her culture but these traits are enough to put her in a precarious condition with her pass. The readers never really understands why she kept this as a secret when her life was in jeopardy when she seemed to be a happy go lucky European where slavery seems only a textbook reference. 

Eventually she is kidnapped by them and taken back to the Sahara camps. The author vividly describes her condition in the camps once she is returned and how desperate she is to return to Julio and her life in Madrid. By this time, her Spanish parents have died in a car accident so only Julio and her future father in law, Carlos can help her. Carlos had actually spend time in the Spanish Sahara before Spain was kicked out or left because this is disputed too, and has a great admiration for the time he spent there and also remembers his first and greatest love, Miami who is also from the Sahara. The author also gives us a a history lesson about the Spanish colony and its eventual demise along the way and the many misunderstandings about the final outcome of the colonial outposts.  

The second part of this novel is about Julio's attempts with the help of his father, who also has a secret in the Sahara, and some international organizations, to have Laia return to Spain. 

Most characters in this novel have secrets and these secrets keep them going but also cause them great strain. While the author uses beautiful prose and a compelling love story , some of the  subplots are a bit far fetched. And too many coincidences need  to happen to render this book a fairy tale happy ending.   Some readers might think otherwise.  Some of the language used to describe the relationship between Julio and Laia seems outdated. 

However, the themes of a love story, family secrets, colonialism, and the clash of cultures are all universal themes that can find a wider audience.   The author's previous books have been very popular in Spain. The text is written in standard Spanish; the historical references and a brief explanation of the sahwari people in Morocco might warrant some explanation or brief footnotes. 

 

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