Fuses a traditional rural folk tale with the kind of political allegory popular around the time of the Spanish Civil War . . . A satisfying twist" (The Wall Street Journal).

In 1930s Spain, in an isolated valley of the Pyrenees, an aging teacher reconstructs a bloody and tragic event that seemed destined to remain forever hidden behind a wall of silence. He alone can penetrate appearances and grasp the iron laws determining the lives of all those who live in this place--this valley where nature is miserly and leaves little room for poetic contemplation or an excess of feelings. He alone remembers his prot g , Ram n, a shepherd, who, no more than a child, fell in love with Alba, the only daughter of the region's most powerful and influential landowner.
The rich and powerful conspire to thwart the love between Ram n and Alba, and in doing so they incite a feud that will extend beyond all reason. Thus begins a vigorous, dramatic story of rebellion and a heroic quest for freedom that "offers both passionate, romantic derring-do and a vivid picture of class-driven mob hysteria" (The Wall Street Journal).

"A story that is sweeping in its narrative and evocative in its detail . . . The sort of romance to stir the coldest of hearts." --The Irish Times