Andrés Trapiello, between the Glitter and the Black Market

Love, action, ideals, intrigue, and power struggles intertwine in 'They Ask Me to Return' (Destino), the new novel by Andrés Trapiello. The Leonese writer (Manzaneda de Torío, 1953) returns through fiction to Madrid, to which he owes so much literarily. In a capital still shattered by the terrible effects of war, he leads the reader through its suburbs, where the defeated live poorly, and through the most elegant and luxurious salons where the victors' glitter shines.

From one world to another goes Benjamín Cortés, a "dispossessed" representing the defeated, turned into a spy and in love with the young aristocrat Sol Neville, whom he meets in the carpeted salons of the Palace Hotel and Embassy. Both were nests of spies in 1945, the year of the defeat of Nazism and fascism when the winners of World War II decided to continue Franco's regime.

Cervantes, 'Don Quixote', the civil war, and Madrid, pillars of Trapiello's work, converge again in this novel that "is not political, nor a thesis, nor preachy," according to its author. The war and post-war "are the landscape in which the characters move."

"Neither Francoism nor anything else is whitewashed or blackened in the novel: everything appears with appropriate shadows and highlights," warns Trapiello about a story starring "two free beings who act against their respective sides." "Distant from a civil war from which both are victims embodying Spain's drama," he adds.

Benjamín Smith, formerly Cortés, is the young American by adoption whom U.S. secret services task with 'parking' a regime leader. He left in 1934 fleeing justice and returns in 1945 to a gloomy Madrid as a spy decorated for bravery demonstrated in France. He will cross paths with the attractive and independent Sol Neville. They will live a "difficult and invincible" love that will change their lives after a long literary game of cat and mouse.

Trapiello recreates dark and miserable Madrid from slums to powerful people in a journey from black market to opulence, from miserable life of those still fighting against regime with arms to those enjoying victory. His story includes "Palace parties, Pasapoga dances, Balenciaga suits alongside Manolete's apotheosis bullfights next to chains of prisoners led by Gran Vía's footpath; fear; misery."

The novel is a natural continuation from 'The Night of Four Roads', where Trapiello narrated falangists' death by "a group of guerrillas." But he resorts to fiction convinced that "lives that matter gain full reality when we involve them through imagination." "Fiction does not replace history but gives it meaning and shapes life's mystery," he says. "We turn to Galdós and his 'National Episodes' rather than contemporary historians or archives for true understanding. Fiction paradoxically anchors us providing certainty; comfort," he argues.

"I spent over three decades wanting to write a novel where two Spains appeared integrated; turns out it's least costly; most satisfactory," he rejoices. "In divided country with many divisive people literature becomes reconciliation; meeting ground more than politics," he asserts.

"Historical memory narrative rests with political commissars ignoring rewriting history from one side or another when history happens but isn't described," laments. "I feel like my novel's characters. I've been quite free discussing Civil War acknowledging injustices from both sides. Victims remain equal while perpetrators change; right-wing or left-wing," clarifies.

"Reconciliation is possible besides remarkable," says Trapiello feeling "a marked author." "They wanted stripping medal accusing equidistance," explains. "My name suggests shadow; that's atmosphere lived here. It can't be issuing penal certificates for far-right or not far-right sphere within democratic liberal country Manuel Chaves Nogales desired hence I see agreeing people matters most," states.

At 71 years old expects "little from life much from readers." Monumental 'Hall Of Lost Steps' author boasts loyal readership yet insists "important isn't reaching hundred thousand readers crucial isn't losing first hundred."

He owes novel title Emily Dickinson whose last words were "they ask me return" whispered dying summoned beyond dead.