Ole! (The Return - Victoria Hislop)

Member Name: leanne8686

Product:	The Return - Victoria Hislop
Date:	01/06/09 (93 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A good book but doesn't compare to my fave! Lovely setting and story.

Disadvantages: A slow start, average.

The Island by Victoria Hislop has to be one of my favourite books so when I spotted this for £3.98 in Sainsburys (and already at number 1 in the chart) I had to have it.

Anyone who has read The Island will know that it is a trip back in time started by somebody reminiscing, this story is very similar in that way.

The book is split into 3 parts.
In Part One we are in Granada in the year 2001 with Sonia and Maggie, two friends on a Salsa holiday. They both love dance and are taking lessons, after seeing a Flamenco show one evening Sonia becomes obsessed with the more passionate of the Spanish dances.
She finds a cafe with a lovely old man owner and gets chatting to him over her morning coffee, on the walls of the cafe are hundreds of photos of both a bullfighter and a young flamenco dancer and Sonia asks who they are and why so many pics.....

Part two returns to 1931 to Granada as the old man tells the story of the Ramirez family who lived and worked in the cafe they are sat in right now.
We meet the Ramirez family, the two main characters of the family are going to be brother and sister Antonio and Mercedes. In the family there is also mum-Concha, dad- Pablo and brothers Ignacio and Emilio.

Ignacios love is bull fighting, he has different political beliefs to the rest of his family and this will cause uproar in the future.
Emilio is a flamenco guitarist and music is his passion, he is homosexual which makes him the butt of many of the towns jokes. He and his guitar accompany Mercedes as she flamenco dances for family and friends. She hopes one day to be the most famous in Spain.
Mercedes has a chance meeting with a famous flamenco guitarist; Javier and its love at first sight for the two of them.

At this point the story seems to be one about the passion of dance, bullfighting and true love and it really does seem as simple as that!

But no...the story erupts into one of politics as the old man tells the tale of one of many familys in Spain who were torn apart by the horrors of the Spanish Civil War.
For Part three of the book we follow Mercedes on her search for her one true love and also Antonio as he becomes a soldier and fights for his country. Their two stories are very contrasting but it's easy to keep up as the author switches between them.


In many ways the book is very similar to The Island and I love that, the story for me is not as gripping or unusual but I still enjoyed it. Hislops writing style makes this another perfect book for summer as despite the country tearing itself apart it is still described well in all its beauty and she really makes you feel as though you are there.

I feel Part one is a bit drawn out, Sonia and Maggie have nothing to do with Granada and really are just two tourists so I don't feel like I need to know so much about them and what they think of Flamenco.
I think Hislop could have condensed the intro to the cafe owner to a few pages rather than 150!
Part two and three make up for this though as they are action packed and I couldn't put the book down at this point.

The history and passion of the country is fascinating but I won't be rushing to read this again soon, it would have been a good book in its own right but I can't help comparing it to Victoria Hislops best seller, there is even a circle on the cover of this saying 'From the best selling author of 'The Island' so this is probably the main selling point of the book which is a shame.

Now i've finished this i'm reading The Island yet again!

Summary: If you haven't read The Island you'll enjoy this more