The Whistle at Siete Vientos — Jeremy Harmer

What is history In this multi-layered novel, set in a country almost more like Mexico than Mexico itself, everyone has to confront their own legends and stories when a shattering incident exposes the before and after of the people and places involved, and the true nature of history is revealed. Far from being a 'random concatenation of states and events' in Karen Bailey's opinion at the start of the novel it is, she discovers, more than dusty accretions of sources and references. It is, instead, the history of a place breathed in the air and sticking to its rocks, and real history, the history that matters, is the story of love.