Down to the Soul

After her boyfriend attacks her in Madrid, Esmi, a young computer programmer, seeks refuge in her grandparents’ village. The village—remote and war-scarred—is a tangle of secrets, and Esmi becomes entwined in her family's tortured history.

“The wind coursed through the nearly deserted village, scouring the town with its own dust. Black dresses and black stockings flapped on clotheslines, and at the village’s heart, the empty plaza hunkered down around a graceless fountain—bone-dry and bullet...