Books Set in Europe, Madrid, Spain

The Princess Spy: The True Story of World War II Spy Aline Griffiths, Countess of Romanones, by Larry Loftis (2021)

 

Aline Griffith (1923 ~ 2017) was born Pearl River, New York, a sleepy little town in outside of New York City, to a middle-class family.  She had big dreams and longed to make a name for herself.  After graduating from college, she landed a job as a model with New York fashion designer Hattie Carnegie.  While it wasn’t her dream job, she did learn poise and a fashion sense.

 

A chance meeting at a dinner party one night in the early 1940s with an Office of Strategic Services (OSS) operative changed the course of her life.  She was given mysterious instructions and told to show up at a building in Washington, D.C., and give a false name.  That led to her training to become an operative with the OSS.  After completing the training course, she was sent to Madrid, Spain in the midst of World War II.  There she was to search for Nazi supporters in the supposedly neutral Spain.  She rubbed elbows with the rich and famous and dated many glamorous men.

 

After the War, she married Luis Figeuroa y Pérez de Guzmán el Bueno, Count of Quintanilla, making her an instant countess.  Her husband’s grandfather was Álvaro de Figeuroa, who had served as Prime Minister of Spain in the early 1910s.  She mostly retired from the spy business after her marriage, but in the 1950s she occasionally took on secret information-gathering missions for the CIA.

 

Her actual involvement in espionage was not well enumerated.  The author describes one event when Aline takes in some female operatives into her home, and one woman was sleeping in her bed.  Later, Aline discovers that the woman had been shot and killed while sleeping.  Aline called her handler and they quietly removed the body before morning.  The author, however, acknowledges that it is difficult to determine what is real and what is not because Aline, herself, provided very contradictory versions of various events.

 

Most of the book describes the life of high society in Spain during.  The author describes the sport of bullfighting in detail and introduces the reader to some of the most famous bullfighters of that era.  Aline traveled in circles where she met and became friends with many of the bullfighters.  From reading this book, one gathers that most of her time as a spy was attending cocktail parties and bullfights.

 

During the War, Aline seems to be nervous about having too much contact with Nazis.  After the 
War, however, she considers the Duchess of Windsor, a known Nazi sympathizer, as one of her closest friends.

 

The book was mildly interesting.  I expected to learn more about a female spy during World War II, and not the antics of a high-society partier.

 

Read:  April 26, 2023

 

3 Stars

 

Books Set in Europe; Spain

By Fire, By Water, by Mitchell James Kaplan (2010)

By Fire, By Water is a historical novel about the Spanish Inquisition.  Many of the characters in the novel, including the main character, Luis de Santágel, Hernando de Talavera, and Cristóbal Colón, were real people.

Luis de Santágel was the royal chancellor of Aragon, and a converso, a Jew forced to convert to Christianity.  De Santágel retained an interest in his Jewish heritage, although that was becoming more dangerous with Tomás de Torquemada’s views on anyone not believing in the “true faith.”

De Santágel was influential in the court of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, however, he knew that his role in the court was tenuous due to his Jewish background. After the murder of the Inquisition’s Chief Inquisitor, Pedro de Arbués, de Santágel realizes that Torquemada’s tactics are much more horrific than previously encountered.  After the Inquisitors arrest both Luis’ son, Gabriel, and his brother, Estefan, Luis sees just how far Torquemada will take his pursuit to extract confessions of faith from non-Christians.

Religious issues become even more complicated when the Catholic monarchs descend into Granada and force out the Moors, who had built a large and peaceful society.  Spurred on by religious fervor, Queen Isabella issued an edict expelling all Jews from the kingdom.

In the meantime, Cristóbal Colón, has De Santágel ear and needs an advocate to convince the Court to help fund an exploration to India across the expanse of the ocean.

No story would be complete without a love story.  De Santágel met the beautiful Judith Midgel, and her nephew, Levi, who are secret Jews.  All of this leads him to explore his abandoned Jewish faith.

This novel brings this period of history to life and the characters are seem very real.

As a side note, in the novel, Levi accompanied Cristóbal Colón on his voyage to be a translator.  He was the only non-sailor on the voyage.  In fact, there was a non-sailor translator listed in Colón’s logs whose name was listed as Luis de Torres, a transliteration of the Hebrew name, Levi Midgel.

Read: September 16, 2018

4 Stars

Books Set in Europe: Spain and Portugal

The Mapmaker's Daughter, by Laurel Corona (2014)

Read: July 25, 2017

3 Stars

Books Set in Europe: Spain

The Last Jew, by Noah Gordon (2000)

I had actually read this book almost exactly 6 years ago, but had forgotten.  The book begins at the time of the Spanish Inquisition and the Jews are either forced out of Spain or forced to convert to New Christians, where their faith is continued to be questioned.  

The novel follows young Yonah, whose older brother was murdered while delivering a valuable silver Christian article, made by his silversmith father, to the local church.  The religious item is lost and the  murder was unsolved.

Shortly thereafter, the Inquisitors come for the Jews and New Christians.  Yonah's sibling are sent to escape Spain with distant relatives.  His father is killed during a raid on the family home by Frey Bonestruca, a brutal Inquisition.  Yonah is left to fend for himself.  He knows he must leave his home town to escape the Inquisitors.  He adopts the name Ramon Callico and begins his travels throughout Spain.  Although he knows he must pose as a Christian, he privately tries to adhere to the religious of his birth, thus becomes the "last Jew" living in Spain.

Through out his travels, he learns various trades, from working on a ship, doing physical labor, becoming a shepherd, and finally, finding a mentor who teaches him to be a physician.  His mentor knows Yonah/Ramon's true identity, but never betrays him.  Yonah finds a home in a remote town of Spain where he practices medicine.  Frey Bonestruca had been living too rich a live and, as punishment, the Church sent him to the same town where Yonah lived.  Yonah must confront the man he believes killed his father.

Noah Gordon crafted a fascinating history of life in Spain during the 1500s.

Read:  August 31, 2010; September 3, 2016

4 Stars

Books Set in Europe: Spain

The Sisterhood, by Helen Bryan (2012).

Read:  October 22, 2013