Spanish Bookhaul

Submitted: 3rd January 2026

Spanish Bookhaul

Second and main stop on the BookTrail mega tour was Madrid. The book that brought me here?

Mr Saito’s Travelling Cinema that was originally out in Danish. So it’s a translated book from Danish to Spanish and it’s phenomenal. (Review to come)

spanish book haul

From the bottom up:

Andalucia Negra – a triology of trauma by Custodio Pérez

Three stories about crime and all things gory set in Andalucia. One of the top writers in Spain who takes his inspiration from Stephen King. This is daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaark the assistant told me. Good I said, just what I am after haha. She looked at me like a proud book mama.

Really looking forward to tucking into this one.

Eva García Sáenz de Urturi – The Water Rituals

Ok so this one is out in English but I prefer the series in Spanish – it’s more gritty and dark somehow. Plus this second instalment had the cutest spredges. I wanted the other three but this was the cutest for cover and spredges and I had other books to grab!

Flor de Agua – Marta Huelves

I found and loved The Third Lake about a mystery lake in Asturias that is there one day and gone the next….and I HAD to have another book by this author. I was going to get the second one but couldn’t find it in time. So I need another holiday in Spain, that’s all that means!

La Toffana – Vanessa Montfort

I was so happy to get this as I LOVED A Poisoner’s Tale by Cathryn Kemp on the lady in Italy who back in the 17th century set up a secret shop that sold poisons to women who were abused or who wanted rid of their husbands for whatever reason. It was a kind of underground poison ring and the woman known as La Toffana was at the head of it all. A true story and so I wanted to learn more.

I was chatting to a Spanish publishing person and told her about A Poisoner’s Tale and then she gave me this book to find out more. I am gifting her A Poisoner’s Tale in exchange!

The Island of Silence – Laia Vilaseca

In 1982, there’s a gruesome triple murder in Sant Jordà, a small town in the Catalan Pyrenees. The bodies are found on the Island of Silence, a place that had always been the subject of dark legends….. and as the town tries to get back to normal, the island sits watching and waiting…

This was a gift and what a gift it is!

With so many crime novels, I thought I need a historical fiction or two…so:

Siete Agujas de Coser – Seven Sewing Needles- Lucía Chacón

If this book is ever translated into English the literal title doesn’t do it justice.

“Sewing was much more than joining pieces together. With enthusiasm, fabrics and threads, we built something that truly mattered to us. Sewing was sharing, creating, dreaming.”

Seven different women meet in Madrid in 1910 and get talking as they each take on a craft project of sewing. One sews a quilt, another something else but it’s the stories they tell as they sew that really forms the real tapestry – that of their lives. It’s a story of female friendship and history and of how slowing down and creating something can be the new start or the distraction you really need.

The Light of the Fireflies Paul Pen

Already translated into English – an author you have to read ! – but this Spanish edition is a hardback with spredges that glow in the dark. I have NEVER seen this before on a book. I will take a photo and post on social media. It’s stunning!!!!

It’s a cross between Room and All the Light I cannot see in a way. A boy lives in a dark basement with his family all disfigured by a fire. He lives in darkness and his life is one of shadows. Yet one day, the fireflies come and the light they bring will change everything…

After all that crime and a little bit of historical stress….. what else do I need?

Well, someone I got chatting to in a bookshop (now a friend!) told me I needed some Spanish smut haha so gave me this- ” More than just a lady’. The title might describe me but I am guessing the contents will show me something very unladylike haha. I hope so!

Spanish people are just so lovely and they LOVE books and reading. Gifted books and ones I bought myself. All welcome and all will be read.

Susan x

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