NO GRACIAS AMIGO!
Pedro Martinez is a young boy growing up in the tiny Spanish fishing village of Rosas. Surrounded by the powerful bonds of family love and community strength, his world is shaken to the core when his father dies in a fishing accident. Pedro’s life is gradually transformed by his uncle who draws him into an ambitious plan to build a hotel. Pedro’s involvement reveals a natural gift for design that will set him on the path for a career as an architect. That’s the story in a nutshell, so why do I dislike this book?
To begin with Pedro is not an interesting character yet as readers we’re supposed to care about him because he is central to the narrative. Not only is that a big ask but it also happens to be extremely presumptuous! He may be a decent guy who loves his mum, but there’s nothing about his personality that stands out. In short he is boring! The lack of a decent main protagonist isn’t the only thing that lets this book down. The writing is inconsistent and doesn’t always engage (one of the few exceptions to that observation is the scene where Pedro’s father is killed), the narrative timeline is horribly muddled, and there are howlers aplenty. Let me give you a few. The story kicks off somewhere in the mid/late 1930s yet the Spanish Civil War is never mentioned: a hotel visitor steps onto a boat carrying a Dolce & Gabbano beach bag more than 20 years before the label was launched in 1985. By my reckoning that means D&G founders Stefano Gabbano and Domenico Dolce would either yet to have been born or were babies in their prams. It’s the small but telling errors that speak volumes!
The Last Sardana is the first book in a six part saga charting Pedro’s life journey, although having struggled to reach the end of book 1 I guarantee I won’t be reading the other five. Adios Pedro!
Reviewed by Juliette Foster
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