The Spanish bestseller: an award-winning work of narrative non-fiction that tells of a journey into a heart of darkness in the aftermath of the Civil War

Autumn 1939. The Spanish Civil War is over – Franco’s fascist forces have triumphed. In a cemetery in Alicante, the remains of the late fascist leader José Antonio Primo de Rivera, Franco’s inspiration and mentor, are being exhumed. On the Generalissimo’s orders, soldiers will carry de Rivera’s coffin on their shoulders deep into the heart of the country, for reburial alongside the kings of Spain: a 290-mile demonstration of who holds power in the new Spain.

Set over the course of the eleven-day journey 1939: Spain in Ruins weaves together the triumph of the victors with the experiences of the defeated and erased - exiles, forced labourers, concentration camp inmates and purged teachers - in a classic of historical writing.