Historical novel mainly set in Barcelona

7th November 2022

Our Last Days in Barcelona by Chanel Cleeton, historical novel mainly set in Barcelona 1930s/1960s.

“Barcelona is a city of whispers and secrets…”

This is the third novel in the Perez family saga, each novel gives a voice to the sisters in the family. Our Last Days in Barcelona can be read as a standalone. The previous novels are Next Year in Havana and When We Left Cuba. After writing those two, the author says she received messages from readers who were keen to hear further stories.

Barcelona 1964 – Beatriz Perez has been living in Barcelona and appears to have disappeared, she seems to be involved in clandestine work. Her sister Isabel flies over from Palm Beach to see if she can track her down. The two women have already lost a brother, so there is heightened concern for her well-being in the family, as they know how traumatic loss can be.  Back in the 1930s, as the Civil War in Spain is revving up, mother Alicia also found herself in the city, with tiny Isabel in tow.

Then there is Alicia’s cousin, Rosa, back in the 1930s, who is mourning the loss of her husband in the war in Spain. She is universally disliked in her husband’s family, save seemingly for her husband’s brother. She is doing what she can to support the victims of war across the Atlantic and that in itself might place her in political  and phsyical jeopardy.

I have very much enjoyed the previous novels by this author, she has a fluid writing style and a canny talent for observation and descriptions, featuring feisty women who will not bow easily to societal pressures. This novel does not have the class of the other two, it feels hastily put together and needed a further edit.

There are problems with this book. It is a dual timeline novel and the author does struggle to integrate the several stories unfolding in both the 1930s and 1960s, they feel loosely knitted together, and thus it can be a little hard to keep track of people and times.

The novel also relies heavily on coincidence and fortuitous timing. Isabel happens to bump into Diego in Barcelona. Having serendipitously discovered Beatriz’s datebook (having been able to walk into her apartment through the unlocked front door), which mentions a meeting at Camila’s, Diego can immediately pinpoint Camila’s as a bar that is not in Barcelona but in Marbella. And off they go in an open convertible to check out the locale.

Characters zip about and have surprise encounters, which are devices to further the storyline. In New York, for example a couple of characters bump into each other, whilst attending an art show in MOMA, they happen to be in front of Guernica by Picasso (which hung there for 42 years on extended loan, it is now back in Madrid). This then deftly opens another feed into the past. There are too many extraordinary coincidences, and too many threads, which complicate what essentially is a good storyline.

Then there are editing issues, it is almost as though the wrong version has been sent to the publisher. The first paragraph in the chapter detailing an arrival in Marbella states: “When we arrive at the hotel….” and the third chapter thereafter asserts “We arrive at the hotel..” Then, innumerable (and really there are innumerable) times we are informed that her (or his) “eyes widen slightly…” Once you spot the multiple references, you cannot not see them. That is just sloppy editing.

So, sadly, a flawed and not an altogether convincing round-off to the saga of the Perez sisters. It could have been so much more because I know this author has real talent and ability.

Setting isn’t particularly strong.

Tina for the TripFiction Team

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