Domingo’s Angel by Jenny Twist

When Angela turns up in a remote Spanish mountain village, she is so tall and so thin and so pale that everyone thinks she is a ghost or a fairy or the dreadful mantequero that comes in the night and sucks the fat from your bones.

But Domingo knows better. "Soy Angela," she said to him when they met—"I am an angel." Only later did he realize that she was telling him her name and by then it was too late and everyone knew her as Domingo's Angel.

This is the story of their love affair. But it is also the story of the people of the tiny mountain village—the indomitable Rosalba—shopkeeper, doctor, midwife and wise woman, who makes it her business to know everything that goes on in the village; Guillermo, the mayor, whose delusions of grandeur are rooted in his impoverished childhood; and Salva the Baker, who risked his life and liberty to give bread to the starving children.

The events in this story are based on the real experiences of the people of the White Villages in Southern Spain and their struggle to keep their communities alive through the years of war and the oppression of Franco's rule.

This book was engaging and entertaining as well as informative, but I kept forgetting the time period. No one in the town had indoor plumbing or cars.  When Guillermo the mayor turned up with a car, I pictured something from the early twentieth century; not post World War II.  I guess I was pretty spoiled growing up in Chicago in a house with electricity, a television, and two cars.  I didn’t realize the kind of poverty other people endured, even though I had relatives in the country who still had outhouses.

At any rate, the characters in Domingo’s Angel hooked me, especially the irrepressible Rosalba, through whom we learn most of the history of the town as Generalissimo Franco takes over and kills or conscripts an entire generation of men, plundering, raping, and plunging the town into poverty and starvation “for the good of the people.”  Yet, when Angela arrives she finds the people celebrating their festivals and life going on as though it had never been disturbed.  She finds warmth and humor and happiness and she shares it with us.  Domingo’s Angel is has its dark side, but in the end, it’s a feel-good read.

Length:  175 Pages

Price:  $5.99

Buy Link:  http://www.melange-books.com/authors/jennytwist/twistdomingosangel.html

You’ll notice I always include the publisher’s buy link.  That’s because authors usually receive 40% of the book price from the publisher.  Editors and cover artists usually receive about 5%.  When you buy a book from Amazon, Barnes & Noble or another third-party vendor, they take a hefty cut and the author, editors and cover artists receive their cuts from what is left.  So, if this book costs $4.99 at MuseItUp or Secret Cravings and you buy from there, the author will receive about $2.00.  If you buy the book at Amazon, the author will receive about sixty cents.

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