The Teacher and the Beast

This prize-winning Catalan novel is set against the aftermath of the Spanish civil war, long after it ended. Isolated at home with her parents and her thoughts, Severina subsequently becomes a teacher in the remote Dusa. The attractions for her are to touch snow, have a house of her own and belong in a village. She has a special relationship with the enigmatic Sime?, a married man who is nicknamed the Beast. Sime? helps her to understand what lies behind the silence under the Franco dictatorship, and why her parents had used ambiguous language in front of her in order to protect her from danger. Step by step she learns to bridge the gap between innocence and social and political reality under Franco's regime.