Open Heart by Elvira Lindo

This intimate family novel that follows the rise and fall of a great love is also a moving tribute to the generation that struggled to survive in Spain after the Civil War.

In Open Heart, Elvira Lindo tells the story of her parents—the story of an excessive love, passionate and unstable, forged through countless fights and reconciliations, which had a profound effect on their entire family.
Manuel Lindo came from nothing, but stubbornly worked his way up at the Dredging and Construction Company. Obliged to move from city to city for his job, the family couldn’t put down roots, and Elvira and her siblings’ childhood was marked by unpredictability. As they pass through temporary homes, they’re caught between Manuel’s outsized temper and their young mother’s worsening illness, which would tragically take her life.
Beginning with nine-year-old Manuel’s experience in Madrid in 1939, Open Heart takes us on a sweeping journey through Spain full of beautifully observed insights about love in its many forms.

REVIEWS

“Lindo’s Open Heart is an exploration of the imperfect ways we love each other and how we forgive. She has done something wonderful here, given us a novel that is akin to a master sculptor’s high relief, where we see pictures of one family at different stages, with enough unsparing yet loving detail to see each life individually in all its broken beauty.” —Rubén Degollado, author of The Family Izquierdo

“An excellent novel that dissects the influence of family environment and the enduring imprint of the past.” —La Razón

“[Lindo’s] masterpiece.” —Babelia, El País

PRODUCT DETAILS
Paperback
Publisher: Other Press
ISBN: 978-1635422528
Pages: 368