TF: Mauro Larrera is a determined and bold man to survive in business. It plots a convincing story set against a colourful backdrop. This is a novel that will take you to the Spanish speaking world of the second half of the 19th Century. The text is peppered with little nuggets of interesting information – the servants in Valencia were mainly British, and at that time wine made up 20% of Spain’s total exports (increasing so much so that by 2014 Spain was the world’s biggest wine exporter!).

How the old colonial world is starting to make way for fresh ideas. It is clear that a huge amount of research has gone into the story for both social, locational and political setting. Intrigue and family are woven into the narrative as he traverses the Spanish-speaking world, facing new dilemmas and challenges on each leg of his journey. Larrero is, at heart, a chancer, he plays a shrewd game of billiards which take his fortune in quite another direction, to wit to Valencia, where he has acquired a vineyard estate. But the promised investment does not bring the rewards he is promised and he soon on his uppers. That is, until he invests in a pump, due to come from America. The novel is set against the period of the American Civil War which impacted on life and trade in Mexico and Cuba, and against the last years of the slave trade, officially abolished earlier in the century, but still very much part of the fabric of society – sugar plantations in Cuba, for example, relied on slave labour from Africa, but the owners supported the abolition in the main because they feared revolt, not out of principle.Ī tumultuous time, then, forms the backdrop to the story of Mauro Larrero who, as the book opens, is still successfully mining silver in Mexico. Plus QA with Maria DueñasĪ Vineyard in Andalusia by Maria Dueñas, historical novel set in the Spanish speaking world – Mexico, Cuba and Andalusia.Ī sweeping historical novel that takes the reader from Mexico to Cuba and on to Andalusia in the 1860s… Historical novel set in the Spanish speaking world.

The Vineyard by María Dueñas