Set in hystorically detailed and descriptive post-war Spain, during the dictatorship of General Franco, tourists are being welcomed to the crountry. Among them is Daniel Matheson, an 18 year old american, aspiring photographer and son of an oil tycoon, who find himself introduced to Ana, a spanish hotel maid. From here, the multilayered story begins, with intertwining threads and characters, set in a well-research historical background of the fall our from the Spanish Civil war, illustrating a part of the hardships felt during Spain’s dark past.

Ruta Sepetys does an amazing job at researching and setting the background for this novel, telling the story from an outside POV looking into Spain, as a foreigner. Having grown up in Spain, although various decades following Franco’s dictatorship and death, I have met various individuals who lived during and grew-up after his regime. Each indivudal has their own truth from that time, some speak of the postive while others of the many negatives. The stories of “stolen babies” and “church orphans” may sometimes be heard, but is so perfectly illustrated and respectfully approached in this novel.

Although the background for this novel is what draws the reader in at the start, the characters are what keep the pages turning. You connect to each for their indivudal personility traits, all representing a different hardship being overcome during Franco’s regime. All threads, some sadder while others happier, come together at the end.

I would have rated this book 5★, however my expectations were so high and, although that is no fault of the book’s, I have to deduct 0.5. I understand this is a YA novel and, thus, most or all POVs are that of young adults. However, I wished to have been able to read from other perspectives, from older Spanish citezens adapting to the regime, from contrasting upper and lower class citizens and how each may have been affected differently as a result of their social status, etc. Despite this, I would recommend reading this book to anyone who loves historical fictional, especially those willing to learn about some buried history.

This could have been a wonderful novel but sadly I found it too padded. The premise of the story was excellent and set in a time and place of which I have great interest. But it needed a serious edit to give it a faster pace. I also found the bullfighting aspect unnecessary.

Golly, Sepetys knows how to do titles! Between Shades of Gray, Salt to the Sea, The Fountains of Silence.... Gorgeous.

The opening paragraphs were a wonderful hook: the blood being sold for the blood sausages, the physicality of the world under a dictatorship is powerfully realised, although for me not quite as powerfully as the horrors in Between Shades of Gray,

Sepetys' writing is powerful and the novel structured to effectively contrast the poverty and deprivations of the working class reality in Franco's Spain with the artificial luxury of the American tourists in the hotel. Connecting these two disparate worlds is Ana, a working class woman with a secret ("I know what you did last Summer") working at the hotel, and becoming friends with Daniel Matheson, the son of a Texan oil magnate who aspires to be a photo-journalist. Dark secrets are slowly revealed of a dark period in Spanish history.

For me, the number of point-of-view characters (Rafa, Julia, Ana, Puri., Daniel..) and the speed with which they change was perhaps a little choppy - and the pace a little slow especially at the start - the note Ana found and ate seemed a rather clumsy device. It was a moving novel which intertwines a range of plots, dramas and characters and I did care for them. And perhaps it is unfair to constantly compare it to Between Shades of Gray, but it for me somehow it didn't quite have the same power.

Thanks to netgalley for an early copy in return for an honest review
Having read ashes in the snow I was delighted to get an early of this one.
This really is an OUTSTANDING book and Author.
While reading this majestic book I could not get enough of it I can't praise this book enough and can highly recommend.

This is a stunning book.
It has been thoroughly researched and I learned a lot about this period of history by reading it.
Rura Sepetys tells the story of life in Spain during the time of the dictator Franco with great sensitivity and brutal honesty. She allows us to peek into the shattered lives of the people and share their unspoken secrets. Bridging the cultural divide between Spain and the USA, between the haves and the have nots, between the powerful and the powerless, and using photography as a way of bringing out hidden depths, this book is cleverly plotted and beautifully written.
The stories and images will stay with me for a long time. The Fountains of Silence will be enjoyed by both teen and adult readers.

Ruta Sepetys paints a richly descriptive and historically detailed picture of post war Spain under the fascist dictator, General Franco. It is 1957, and Spain is desperate for money and to facilitate this, is welcoming tourists to the country. 18 year old American Daniel Matheson is staying at a luxury hotel with his family, his father is an oil tycoon looking to make a deal with Franco's regime. Spain is the country of Daniel's mother, and he is looking to explore it, with every intent of looking beneath the official versions of Madrid. Whilst his father wants him to work for the business, Daniel has other ideas, he wants to be a photographer, and has made plans to study photography at college. Ana is the young, bright and beautiful hotel maid charged with looking after the Matheson family and meeting their every need. This is a well researched multilayered story of David and Ana, love, identity, heartbreak, and the walls of silence behind which are hidden the true horrors of Franco's Spain.

Rafa, Ana's brother remembers the family, and its tragic past, his parents opposition to Franco and their death, . He works hard, although he still goes hungry, at his two jobs at the slaughterhouse and the graveyard, with his friend, Fuga, an intense force of nature, with dreams of becoming a famous bullfighter and protect the children. Ana's cousin, Puri, works at the Catholic Adoption Centre. Ben is an American Journalist who urges David to capture the Spain beyond the official version through the lens of his camera, deploying angles that tell the truth, the varied stories that lay beneath the surface. As David connects with an Ana with her dreams of travelling and escape, she begins to slowly entrust him with the inner secrets of a country where people live in fear and terror. However, she puts at risk her job, love and freedom, she has family responsibilities, a job that is essential in keeping her family going.

The stories of the host of characters interconnect to uncover Spain's secret history under Franco, and the fall out from the Spanish Civil War and its repercussions that continued into the 1950s. Sepetys writes with humanity and compassion about this dark historical period, the vast swathe of untold suffering, pain, despair and the tyranny of a repressive regime. This is brilliant immersive historical fiction of a brutal period of history that I have long been fascinated and interested by. This is for those who are interested in this period of Spanish history and those who enjoy well written and informative historical fiction. Highly recommended! Many thanks to Random House Children's for an ARC.

This is a long story packed with facts about the Spanish civil war. It has obviously been very well researched and thought out. The story itself is slow and long in places. This is still a really good read and a very interesting and heartbreaking story.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

5 incredible stars

Warning: gushing ahead!

I am a late bloomer to the Ruta Sepetys bandwagon. I read or rather listened to “Salt to the Sea” around February this year.
That story moved me so deeply that Ruta instantly became one of the authors I am vowing to follow in every adventure she goes on.


Did the Fountains of Silence live up to my expectation? Totally!

Is it another Salt to the Sea? No even if you can find Ruta's trademark in her precise and effortless writing; in her use of multiple point of views and in her passion for history.

Ruta has the knack to tell History with a big H through people's stories. THEY make history. She has you walking into her character’s shoes and makes you live history like no history book can do.

Once again Ruta centered her story around a particular era of Spain’s history: Franco’s regime. One that was totally overlooked in my classes. One made of tyranny and of silence for the Spaniards. One hiding something that would become a tragedy for many families.

Living in Europe our history classes were thorough on many periods and events. World Wars were analyzed in details but none of Ruta's topics came to light. Too sensitive. Too painful at that time.

Ruta Sepetys is one of these authors whose writing seems effortless. It is fluid, precise, conveying so many emotions and visuals in few words that none of them seem superfluous but every one is necessary. Her prose is one of the most powerful that I have read. You will find several quotes below as I just want to highlight Ruta’s profound writing.


In The Fountains of Silence, the characters are once again built to perfection. By the end of the book you won't want to leave them, wanting more. A glimpse of their future. Like getting a postcard with a few news every Christmas. Imagine: "Hi we got married on the coast in that small church overlooking the sea." "Hi we got our first daughter and she does look like my mother. She is the sweetest baby ever." "Hi...".

We follow the lives of Daniel, Ana, Rafa, Fuga, Julia, Puria with Nick and Ben gravitating around them.

As I don’t want to spoil your read I will focus on the characters and the very opening of the book.

The story begins with Rafa.
He is recalling tragic events from the past that cost his parents death. Rafa went through horrible events in his life before getting back to his sisters Julia and Ana. Their parents opposed Franco and in Franco's regime his opponents died and their children suffered.

“Today, the young daughter of a journalist was dealt such bestial blows she died choking on her own blood. In many ways, it is the children of our country who will pay for this war—my own included—and for that, I cannot forgive myself.”


Rafa works two jobs and he still is hungry. He is working at a slaughterhouse and a graveyard where he works alongside his fierce and untamed friend Fuga.

Fuga is a character who won't have many lines in this story but that you won't forget. He has presence. Never have I read about a side characters emanating such oneness. Fuga is intense, savage, he is a storm, he is a bull. What happened to him as a kid is barely hinted at in the book and is horrible.


“Sí,” whispers Fuga. “I will emerge from this fire and when I do”— his head snaps to Rafa, wild eyes ablaze—“I’ll burn them all down.”


He dreams of fighting bulls and once he’ll be famous he will avenge and protect all the kids.

“Resurrection is possible, Huérfano. You fight for the forgotten, the abused, the hungry, and the unwanted. You fight for your one and only friend, just as he fights for you.”


The two main characters of the story are Daniel and Ana.

Daniel is the son of a Texan oil tycoon come to Spain to seal a deal with Franco.
That's when we learn that Spain needed money and opened its borders to tourists, many of them being American and especially Texan.
Daniel is quintessentially a good guy.
Raised by a Spanish mother he is educated, polite and considerate. His mother did a mighty fine job with her son even if, being from Spain, she never totally fit into Texan’s high society.

“It’s difficult navigating two cultures,” she once told him. “I feel like a bookmark wedged between chapters. I live in America, but I am not born of it. I’m Spanish.”

Daniel dreams of becoming a photo journalist even if his father wants him to join the family company. Dressed in jeans, belt buckle, boots and plaid shirt he is a far cry from high society men always wearing suits. An encounter with Ben, an American journalist will set a chain of events in action. Ben will be his mentor and will offer unique opportunities to Daniel.

“Ben is right. The perfect word is like the perfect camera angle; it expresses the true nature of the situation. Change the camera position slightly and the picture tells tales.”

Daniel chases the truth. Any truth. He will embrace Spain and its secrets like he would a lover. With care, respect and utter dedication.


“You’re a photographer, a storyteller. In a dozen pictures, you showed me ten layers of Texas. Choose an angle and show me ten layers of Madrid.”

Ana is the hotel maid assigned to his family.
Ana is young, smart, kind, beautiful and hiding a secret. Under Franco’s regime women’s freedom was very restricted. Working at the Hilton is living in a totally different world for Ana. It is a dream world for the young woman who wants nothing more than to travel, escape. Ana and her family will be crucial in Ben’s quest for the true story. The one no one speaks about. But helping Ben is dangerous. It could cost her job, her freedom and maybe her heart.

You also have Puri, Ana’s cousin. Working at a state orphanage. Dutiful Puri. Troubled Puri.

And Nick and Julia and ….


All their lives will mesh and weave a tapestry of secrets, pain, want and hope.


I will stop here as this review is already way too long. That’s what happens when I read a book that opened my eyes and touched me deeply. Just ….read it!


Last but not least I want to thank Penguin Random House Children for gifting me this copy through Netgalley. I already had preordered the book for months but reading it in advance is a wonderful opportunity! And no it had no influence whatsoever on this very willing and honest review!

The two main characters in this powerful story are young adults Daniel and Ana. Daniel Matheson is accompanying his oil rich Texan parents on a business trip to Spain, the homeland of his mother. They are staying at a beautiful, luxurious hotel in Madrid where every courtesy is afforded to rich foreign visitors, nobility and the famous. It is not a hotel frequented by the poor and down and outs of the city. Ana works at the hotel and is under special orders to look after the Matheson family, advise them and do anything they want her to do. Daniel’s father is trying to expand his business in Spain and hopes to secure a mutually beneficial deal. Daniel and his mother are there to see modern-day Spain.
It is 1957, the Spanish Civil has recently ended and Spain is under the government of the fascist dictator General Francisco Franco. Madrid and Spain in general is being touted to foreigners as a tourist destination offering natural beauty, luxury accommodation, hot sunshine and plentiful wine. Daniel is hoping to become a photo journalist but his father is determined that he should work in the family business. He has his eyes set on a University education whereas Daniel wants to find out more about the country where his mother was born and is determined to see the real Spain. Using his expensive new camera he yearns to make poignant photo stories that will win him a prize in the USA and with his winnings he will be able to support himself through the photography college course onto which he has secretly been accepted. Through his family he meets their maid Ana and gradually they become friends.
Ana lives in the slums of Madrid and their meeting inspires Daniel to delve into her local area. The locals are aggressively suspicious at first but soon he is accepted and trusted. He takes photograph after photograph in their downtrodden suburbs and soon meets up with the owner of a specialist Photography shop who acts as a mentor, developing his film and with helpful commentary and advice. Eventually Ana helps him write captions for his photographs under a pseudonym. Her family must tow the line because of her dangerous historical family connections. She cannot risk being sacked because her work ensures the rent on her family graves is paid and food is put on the table. Any gratuities she receives are shared out because her sister has a small sickly baby and they cannot afford medical care. Daniel becomes more and more uncomfortable looking at his masterpieces but the questions he puts to Ana are never answered until one day she decides that Daniel is trustworthy and that is when the trouble boils to a head. This is Ana and Daniels compelling love story. Although this is fiction it is driven to the hidden truth and supported by meticulous research, vintage media reports, interviews, commentary between diplomats, letters, photographs and memoirs. It is a superb novel, one that I loved and feel extremely honoured to review.
Spain’s secret history has since been reported and acknowledged with full pardon for wrongdoings. This gripping history-driven novel is yet another time in recent world history that I knew nothing about, although History and Literature were my major areas of interest and study. I was appalled by the injustice, corruption, lies and hidden violence of repercussions in post-war Spain. I always knew Spain was backward-facing concerning female acceptance in society. I visited Spain on holiday in the late sixties and was very aware of male distaste at my everyday holiday wear, especially travelling north towards France through rural areas. But I had no idea of what went on behind closed doors. This novel humbled me with its poignancy, angered me with its injustice and shocked me to the core with its gratuitous violence. It is another novel written by awesome, talented, historical storyteller Ruta Sepetys. This novel will stay in my memory for years, exactly like ‘Between Shades of Gray’ her award winning debut novel that inspired the film ‘Ashes in the Snow’ and every novel since then. It’s a serious read but balanced out with a tender romance, empathy, compassion and the ambition that the hidden secrets of Spain become better known.
I received this novel through my membership of NetGalley and from publisher Philomel Books in return for an honest review. Thank you most sincerely for my copy. I recommend it as a compelling, absorbing and excellent read.

Quality Rating: Four Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Four Stars

Since I read Salt to the Sea three years ago I've been dying to pick up another one of Sepetys' books. The Fountains of Silence dives into a very different era in a very different place with very different people but is no less thorough and engaging. And hey, you gotta love a cute romance.

Sepetys is very good at representing history without feeling like you're in a lecture. She cares about her story, and so enriches it with the context, furled by the extensive research she's done - rather than distracting you with unnecessary tangents for the sake of it. The one blip for me were the contextual quotes; they were fascinating and helpful for my understanding of what was happening, but they took me out of the story with how irregularly they were placed throughout the book. It was a big sign pointing at the important plot twists that I would've preferred to have felt out myself. But at the same time, those quotes really hit their mark.

The protagonist of Fountains of Silence is a photographer, something which I didn't think much of until I started reading. For one thing, the way Sepetys writes about photographs without actually showing them is so engaging. But it's also a very clever device to put in a story about Francoist Spain, and she takes full advantage of that. (Ironically, the egalley I have doesn't include the photos at the back of the book that I imagine are either supposed to be Daniel's or are what inspired them. It'd be so interesting to cross-reference them with what's mentioned in the story.)

The Fountains of Silence has a time jump in it that I wasn't convinced about to begin with but actually, having finished, it really works well. I think it could've been more towards the middle of the book because I really wanted it to go on a little longer. I can see why it didn't or we would've had an entirely new story inside the same book, but things ended very abruptly. I finished the last page and was confused that the author's note was suddenly there.

Once again Ruta Sepetys is proven to be the queen of young adult historical fiction both in her diligence of research and mastery of stories inside that. The Fountains of Silence is a reasonably easy read for one so dark in many ways, and definitely an enjoyable way to educate yourself about important topics.