The Holy Innocents

Delibes wrote this with a contained fury more effective than any pamphlet. The Azarías family, señorito Iván, the dog Niño, the dove Milana: they are characters that stick in the memory because they are built from direct observation, not from theory. The narrative structure is unusual, almost oral, and that requires some initial effort, but once you are inside there is no leaving unmoved. One of the most important Spanish novels of the twentieth century.