How could I not resist Mario Escobar’s 2025 historical novel A Bookseller in Madrid when I came across it one Saturday afternoon at the public library?  A piece of historical fiction by a Spanish author set in a Madrid bookstore founded by a German expat checked all the boxes as far as my reading challenges. Therefore, I happily helped myself to it, confident I could apply it towards the European, Bookish Books, Books in Translation, Historical Fiction, Cloak and Dagger, Immigration, and Library Love reading challenges. After reading just a few pages I knew I’d made the right choice.

It’s the 1930s and Berliner Barbara Spiel can see the Nazis are leading Germany to ruin. Daughter of a liberal politician, the intellectually-gifted young woman with a boundless love of books fears for the safety of her family, but also that of other, progressive minded individuals living in Germany. One such person she fears for is Françoise Frenkel, Jewish emigre and owner of Berlin bookstore La Maison du Livre. (Author of whose memoir I featured last month.) Known as the city’s go-to store for French literature it’s here Barbara meets a young socialist parliamentarian from Spain. Romance quickly blossoms and with the Nazi threat growing by the day she follows her new beau to Madrid.

In the Spanish capital she finds refuge with a small community of like-minded German expats associated with a Lutheran church and its school. In Madrid she builds a life a new life by getting married and starting a family of her own. Despite being told “Spaniards aren’t readers” she knows otherwise and opens her own successful bookstore, and like Frenkel’s in Berlin it too becomes a Mecca for intellectuals and progressives. With her husband’s rising political career, a growing family and owner of a celebrated bookstore life is good for Barbara.

However, Spain is rife with political instability and ready to explode. Eventually, arch-traditionalists lead by reactionary army generals with support from the Catholic Church revolt against Spain’s leftist government and launch the Spanish Civil War. For the next few years the young Spanish Republic, with some support from the USSR struggles to stave off defeat at the hands of Franco’s Nationalists, a formidable fighting force well-armed by Germany and Italy. As the conflict becomes a kind of proxy war between European powers agents of both Germany and Great Britain attempt to recruit Barbara. Against her wishes she finds herself an unwitting participant in a deadly cloak and dagger battle. Eventually, after Franco’s Nationalists emerge victorious Barbara and her husband are declared enemies of the state. Spain, once a safe haven must be fled at all costs.

In addition to the above-mentioned Françoise Frenkel several other real historical figures show up in A Bookseller in Madrid including German theologian, anti-Nazi dissident and martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Not just a work of historical fiction there’s elements of suspense as well as espionage. Surprisingly, there’s even some religious overtones. (Both Escobar and his American translator are experienced in the field.) This, combined with the novel’s quick pace and great storytelling make A Bookseller in Madrid an enjoyable read and a strong candidate to make my year-end list of Favorite Fiction come December.

Wanting something I could apply towards multiple reading challenges like the European, Historical Fiction and Books in Translation reading challenges back in 2024 I grabbed a Kindle edition of Danish-Norwegian author Kim Leine’s 2019 historical novel The Colony of Good Hope. Set in the mid-18th century it tells the story of Denmark’s largely unsuccessful attempt to colonize the remote Arctic island from the perspective of an extensive cast of individuals ranging from the colony’s Lutheran chaplain to an indigenous shaman. After finishing it late last week I’d have to say the jury is still out whether or not I truly enjoyed this novel. That aside, I thought author did an admirable job painting a detailed picture of a colonial endeavor doomed from the start thanks to the pitifully small investment in resources both human and material forced to contend with the twin ravages of disease and harsh environment.

Hoping to exploit the island’s purported bounty of natural resources Denmark’s King in 1728 decrees that a colony be established in Greenland. To settle this newly-acquired realm dozens of men are plucked from the kingdom’s jail and paired off with women recently released from a female confinement facility, many of them former prostitutes. After a mass wedding the nuptials are then put on a boat and transported to Greenland. Here this shanghaied band of benighted ex cons and former sex workers are ordered to  build a colony. Bereft of the necessary skills, motivation and helpful resources one by one they succumb to malnutrition, disease, violence and above all brutal Arctic weather.

The Colony of Good Hope is a vivid reminder colonialism throughout history inevitably lead to clashes of cultures. Commonly this is manifest in religion as  indigenous beliefs are forced to compete with the colonizers’ Christianity. In the fledgling colony Lutheran missionary Hans Egede labored for years unsuccessfully to convert native Greenlanders. Meanwhile his religious counterpart shaman Aappaluttoq is quite content in his animist beliefs and loathes his own son was taken by Egede and raised as a Christian. Not only are Egede and his fellow Lutherans entrusted with converting the indigenous Greenlanders they also dream of bringing the true faith to the fabled forgotten communities of Viking settlers whose practiced Christianity predates the Reformation. Lastly, this being waning days of pre-modernity whispers of anti-semitism and even witchcraft are heard from time to time in the colony frequently leading to injurious results.

Despite having mixed feelings about The Colony of Good Hope after discovering it’s one part of a larger trilogy I’m tempted to explore the other two novels. If and when I do you’ll be sure to read about it on this blog.