One of the great publishing successes of recent years in Spain has been the book El tiempo entre cuerdas, the first novel published by María Dueñas. An author who after many years in the academic world, in which as a doctor in English Philology she had published numerous specialized works on that subject. She, however, had never drawn anything from fiction, until this story came to light in 2009.
Its success was gradual but unstoppable, until it became a first-rate publishing phenomenon, with which came translations into various languages and also its transfer to the format of a television series.
And all thanks to a plot in which we are told the life of a young dressmaker from Madrid, of humble origins, who at a given moment love for a man makes her get out of the life path that seemed to have traced. All this set in the context of a Madrid prior to the Spanish Civil War.
The protagonist, whose name is Sira Quiroga, will leave the Spanish capital and embark on a journey that will take her toMorocco, where she will be involved in a context of betrayal and espionage.
The narrative mix has all the ingredients to engage the reader. To begin with, there is the romantic plot, but there is also the intriguing atmosphere of the political context, since everything is limited to a specific moment and there are manyreal characters that appear in the various episodes. And then there is the action, adventure and exotic atmosphere provided by the settings of cities like Tangier or Tetouan in Moroccan territory.
Not forgetting the descriptions of the author who gives us a good sample of the time, describing from the simplest and most humble spaces, to other places full of glamor such as the hotels where the we althiest and most influential of that historical period.
The truth is that for the Spaniards themselves it is a story that has made known a part of history not widely disclosed by fiction books, such as Spain's colonial possessions in Africa. While other European countries have many works devoted to the colonial past, take for example Kipling for Great Britain or André Malraux for France, in Spanish literature there are hardly any references.
Possibly, this discovery is another outstanding factor in the success of the novel, which has served for María Dueñas to publish other novels subsequently. Including a second part of The time between seams which is titled Sira, and which has been published in 2021.
