Fountains of Silence by Ruta Sepetys

Spain in the late 1950s is the setting for this imaginative historian's new book that like her others, speaks to a wide audience. A wealthy young man is visiting Madrid with his parents and while he is there he tries to capture the beauty and hidden brutality he sees with his camera lens. He falls for a housekeeper at the hotel and she, along with a couple of other Americans show him the less glamorous side of Franco ruled Spain. Hard-hitting and humanistic, Ruta Sepetys gives us the lush setting of Madrid and its embattled ethnic groups and juxtaposes it with American wealth, privilege and naivete. Adults, young adults, and older kids will fall for this beautiful story of a country brought to its knees by a dictator.