![]() ![]() RS: When history is hidden in the shadows, the people who experienced those events probably feel forgotten or overlooked or misunderstood. MC: What makes your book timely? Why should people read it now? It took seven years going back and forth to Madrid, renting an apartment, walking the path that I thought my characters would walk, and spending time there, speaking to true witnesses and survivors. Do I have the right to write about Spain’s history? That’s what inspired me to write from the viewpoint of an outsider, an American in Spain. There's also the question of what right do we have to history other than our own? Here I am, a Lithuanian-American. ![]() So that kickstarted my interest to hopefully give voice to people who haven’t been able to tell their stories. I took it upon myself to do the research, and then my publisher sent me an article from The New York Times about some of the difficulties of Spain’s history under the dictatorship of Franco. ![]() When I asked them about their own country’s history, they told me, "Oh, it’s too difficult for an outsider to understand." They said, "Ruta, it’s just too painful." And that broke my heart. Ruta Sepetys: All of my books are published in Spain, and when I would tour there, the Spanish readers showed such empathy and compassion for the hidden history in my novels. ![]()
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