Not Only Fire

A Spanish family torn apart by the Civil War. A story of exile, love and loss in Costa Rica, Panama, El Salvador and Mexico. A marriage embittered by disappointment, a small boy struck by lightning, and a young woman running headlong into a personal hell. This is the drama of Benjamn Prado's Not Only Fire.Prado introduces us to four generations of an everyday - and yet extraordinary - Spanish family. Grandfather Truman is the son of Republicans purged under Franco; Samuel and Ruth are a married couple, their past full of youthful dreams and promises, who now face a humdrum future; their young daughter Martha is caught in an intense but self-destructive relationship; and their ten-year-old son Maceo is obsessed by the sky, and the stories Truman tells him of travels, secrets and tragedies. Each member of the family is close to the edge - and anything could happen, from forgiveness to murder . . .'Eighteen-year-old Marta goes to parties where the kids drink and snog to Sonic Youth. This could be England. But her leftist family is scarred by four decades under Franco.' Observer

Benjamin Prado was born in Madrid in 1961. He has published several volumes of poetry and a series of novels: Raro (1995), Donde crees que vas y quien te crees que eres (1996), Nunca le des la mano a un pistolero zurdo / Never Shake Hands with a Left-handed Gunman (1996), and Alguien se acerca (1998). No solo el fuego / Not Only Fire was first published in Spain in 1999, and won the prestigious Premio Andalucia de Novela.