The writer transcends the realms explored by the literary voices of her time with a character whose religious vocation takes her need for love, belonging, and her enduring intensity even further.
I have met Violeta, the protagonist of Aixa de la Cruz's new novel, and sometimes (fewer times than I would like) I have even been her. The latter doesn't matter here, or at least I don't want to use it as an argument. And as for the former, I know it may have a somewhat naive undertone for a review: after all, no one expects a critic to hurl confessions to their faces from the pages of a diary. However, I thought it was worth saying, letting you know that I have met Violeta embodied, perhaps not in just one woman, but in three women, and that for two reasons.
One is to warn you that I read Todo empieza con la sangre, prompted by its resonance with my own biography, so you know what to expect. The other reason, related to the previous one, is to underscore the author's gift for resonating in the biographies of many of her contemporaries. It's no coincidence that we're talking about one of the Spanish narrators most in sync with the era she inhabits.
