Review of Swallows Also Fall

[Rafaela Capisciolto]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Swallows Also Fall" by CR Armeny.]

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4 out of 5 stars

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"Swallows also fall", by C.R.Armeny deals with the life experience of Marcel-lí Massana, a spanish freedom fighter, founder of the Maqui, a partisan group against Franco´s dictatorship.
The novel is written in the form of a personal diary, written by Rosana, an illiterate peasant from the town of Berga in Cataluña, and Marcel-lí Massana, his foster brother, who joins the resistance during the Spanish Civil War and founds a resistance group from exile.
Although many has been written about Massana´s action, the author, who is part of Rosana and Marcel-lí´s family, wanted to recover the family memories of his childhood, through the eyes of her grandmother.
The testimony of Nina, Rosana´s daughter and the author´s mother is relevant because she is the only surviving relative who could give some information about Massana´s childhood and the family´s experience of the past. The writer wants to recover the voice of women, who have been the passive victims of the war. Thus, the story is conceived from the point of view of Rosana. Marcel-lí fills the parts of the story that Rosana couldn´t witness.
The book starts in 1918, by the time of the Spanish Flu epidemics, and goes on up to 1951, date of the destruction of the Maqui by Franco´s forces.
I would rate the book 4 out of 5, because the historical research to wirte it was thoroughly done and it aims in recovering the social oral memory of such important experiences that would be lost otherwise.

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Swallows Also Fall
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