Antonio Iturbe

The thrilling true story of a Republican tailor who changed his community's life through music.

In the winter of 1930, Joaquina and her husband Mariano—a tailor by trade and a clarinetist in the Zaragoza band—arrive in the rural neighborhood of Las Casetas. He has been hired to take charge of the meager municipal band in a town of working-class people, mostly uneducated farmers. He soon meets those who are to become his band members: peasants with gnarled fingers, blackened nails, and not a single drop of musical instinct. But no one seems willing to make things easy for him; even the small tailor shop he opens fails to take off, leaving Joaquina to work at a bakery and sell sandwiches at the train station to keep them afloat.

Little by little, however, Mariano manages to win the trust of these rough-hewn people, while learning to trust them in return. A firm believer in progressive ideals to modernize the country through education and culture, his passion for music enables him to genuinely improve their lives. Yet standing against his achievements is a healer known as "the witch," determined to drive Mariano and his wife out of the community. A tense tug-of-war unfolds between reason and magic, rejection and desire, all while the threat of war looms inexorably on the horizon.

Música en la oscuridad (Music in the Dark) brings us back to Antonio Iturbe at his very best—an exceptional storyteller who, as he already proved in The Librarian of Auschwitz, possesses a unique gift for rescuing little-known real episodes from our recent past and crafting a deeply moving novel of resilience in times of war.

"Impressive, moving, and heartbreaking." De Telegraaf

"A storyteller with a powerful voice." Antón Castro

"A daring and courageous writer." Adolfo García Ortega

"Antonio Iturbe proves that even in the darkest times, books can offer a glimpse into another world." MustReads

"Superbly weaves together knowledge, research, and storytelling." Marisa Arias, Culturamas