Mauro Larrea’s fortune, the result of years of hardship and toil, comes crashing down on the heels of a calamitous event. Swamped by debt and uncertainty, he gambles the last of his money in a daring play that wins him an abandoned house and a vineyard an ocean away. Mauro travels to Andalusia de Jerez in Spain with every intention of selling the property and returning to Mexico. That is, until he meets the unsettling Soledad Montalvo, the wife of a London wine merchant, who bursts into his life unannounced, determined to protect her family’s legacy. Before long, Larrea finds himself immersed in the rich culture of the sherry trade. As his feelings for Soledad ripen into a consuming passion, he seeks to restore the vineyard to its former glory. From the turbulent young Mexican republic to flourishing Havana, and onward to the fertile vineyards of Jerez in the second half of the nineteenth century, María Dueñas’s new novel takes place on both sides of the Atlantic, the New World and the Old. This story of family intrigue vividly conjures the noise and grit of silver mines, and the earthier lure of ancient vineyards and magnificent cities whose splendor has faded. Here is a story of courage in the face of adversity and of a destiny forever altered by the force of passion.
Author
María Dueñas Vinuesa was born on 1964 in Puertollano, Spain. She has seven siblings. She is a professor of English Language and Literature at the University of Murcia, and is also an academic author and has worked at different universities in North America. She came into the spotlight in 2009, achieving great success in Spain thanks to her first novel, El tiempo entre costuras, published in English language as The Time in Between and The Seamstress, a historical espionage novel, which sold more than a million copies. It has already been translated into more than 25 different languages. María Dueñas is marrried with Manuel Ballesteros, also a professor, and they have two children, the family lives in Cartagena.
