Translation Rights TQE / The Frozen Heart

Upon his death, Julio Carrión, a powerful businessman whose fortune dates back to the Franco years, leaves his children a substantial inheritance, but also many blanks about his past and his experiences during the Spanish Civil War and fighting with the Blue Division. During the burial, his son Álvaro, the only one who has not wanted to take part in the family business, is surprised by the presence of a young, attractive woman, who he has never seen before, and who seems to know something about the private life of his father. Raquel Fernández Perea is the daughter and granddaughter of Spanish exiles in France, and she knows almost everything there is to know about her family’s past, their experience during the war, and their exile. Only one story remains a mystery, and that is the afternoon when her grandfather, who had just returned to Madrid, took her to visit a family with whom they seemed to be indebted in some way.

With El corazón helado, Almudena Grandes has written her most ambitious novel thus far, as she traces the history of the Franco years, of the Spanish transition, and of the conflict with memory endured by the new generations, through the history of two families.

Almudena Grandes was born in Madrid in 1960. She became widely recognized as a writer in 1989 with her novel Las edades de Lulú (The Ages of Lulu), which won the XI Sonrisa Vertical Prize. She has been accompanied by the acclaim of readers and critics ever since. Her novels Te llamaré Viernes (I’ll Call You Friday), Malena es un nombre de tango (Malena Is a Tango Name), Atlas de geografía humana (Atlas of Human Geography), Los aires difíciles (The Wind from the East), Castillos de cartón (Cardboard Castles), along with her books of short stories Modelos de mujer (Models of Womankind) and Estaciones de paso (Stations On the Way), and the collection of articles Mercado de Barceló (The Barceló Market), have confirmed that she is one of the most solid and internationally-known narrators in recent Spanish literature.