A gripping novel about a young Welshman influenced by the Labour movement who looks for an escape from the confines of life in a Welsh mining village and goes to fight in the midst of the horrors of the Spanish Civil War.

Nofel afaelgar am Gymro ifanc a ddylanwadwyd gan y mudiad Llafur yn chwilio am ddihangfa rhag caethiwed bywyd mewn cwm glofaol yng Nghymru adeg y dirwasgiad trwy fynd i ymladd ynghanol erchylltra Rhyfel Cartref Sbaen.

This novel is set in the nineteen thirties, a decade of political turmoil and social inequality. Both these facets are strongly reflected in this book.

The opening chapters are set in a South Wales mining valley during the depression, where the lives of the people are harsh in the extreme. The central character, David Hicks, has no desire to follow the male members of his family down the mines and, as a result of marriage to a local businessman’s daughter, finds himself working in the family grocery store. But the marriage turns sour and the couple separate. David has become interested in the labour movement by this time and thought is transformed into action when he joins the International Labour Brigade during the Civil War in Spain. The extreme dangers which David encounters in Spain are very vividly described and Granelli has obviously researched the history of the war in great detail. David's periods of captivity, with the ever-present imminence of death, is often harrowing. However, he does survive and returns to Wales to be reunited with his wife.

Roger Granelli is the author of four other novels and is one of the most interesting fiction writers working in Wales at the moment.

Dewi Roberts

It is possible to use this review for promotional purposes, but the following acknowledgement should be included: A review from www.gwales.com, with the permission of the Welsh Books Council.

Gellir defnyddio’r adolygiad hwn at bwrpas hybu, ond gofynnir i chi gynnwys y gydnabyddiaeth ganlynol: Adolygiad oddi ar www.gwales.com, trwy ganiatad Cyngor Llyfrau Cymru.