Summary:
"A typical day, "a stupid day," will determine the rest of their existence. The engrossing, thrilling story of waiting. "For awhile, she wasn't sure if her husband was her husband. Sometimes she thought so, sometimes she thought not, and sometimes she decided not to believe anything and to keep living her life with him, or with that man who seemed like him, but older. But she had also become older because of him, in his absence; she had been very young when they got married." Berta Isla and Tomás Nevinson met each other in Madrid at a very early age, and quickly decided to spend their lives together, never suspecting that an intermittent coexistence-- and later, a disappearance-- awaited them. Tomás, half Spanish and half English, is exceptionally gifted at languages and accents, which attracts the eye of the Crown during his studies at Oxford. One typical day, "a stupid day," which could have been spared, will determine the rest of his existence, as well as that of his wife. Berta Isla is the engrossing, thrilling story of a wait and an evolution: that of its protagonist. And also of the fragility and tenacity of a loving relationship condemned to secrets and concealment, to pretenses and speculation, and finally, to resentment mixed with loyalty. Or, as a Dickens quote toward the end of the book states, it is the proof that "every beating heart ... is, in some of its imaginings, a secret to the heart nearest it." And it is also the story of those who want to stop misfortune and intervene in the universe, only to end up finding themselves banished from it."--Amazon.com.