Title: The Fountains of Silence
Author: Ruta Sepetys
Rating: ★★★★

The Fountains of Silence is a beautiful story about a period of history that I was wholly unfamiliar with prior to reading this. This is my first book by Ruta Sepetys and I can see where all of her high praise comes from. The Fountains of Silence blew me away with it’s gorgeous writing, compelling characters, and thought-provoking story.

The Fountains of Silence is set in Spain 1957 following the end of the Spanish Civil War. This was not a portion of history that I had been familiar with and so it was very eye-opening. Ruta Sepetys did a fantastic job weaving elements of a fictional story with real aspects of history. I was very easily captivated by all of the different plot lines and history lessons.

One of the things about this book I liked the most was the varying points of views. It was especially poignant comparing Daniel’s views as an American tourist to those that were experiencing the effects of Franco’s fascism, such as Ana and Rafa. I think this difference really made point of how things really were in Spain during that time period and how easily the hardships were concealed to the rest of the world.

The Fountains of Silence is a story perfect for fans of historical fiction of any age. The writing was beautiful, the characters were easy to fall in love with, and the story was very moving. I highly recommend this to anyone looking for a lovely book to fall into.