Sons of Granada

Last year, I edited and project managed a novel, Sons of Granada, by Carl Jeronimo, which draws largely on the life of the Granadino poet Federico Garcia Lorca (1898-1936), who was murdered by forces loyal to Generalissimo Francisco Franco during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). This book is a re-imagining of Lorca's life, based loosely on the author's own experiences. Sons of Granada won a 2018 New England Book Show award for small press fiction, non-illustrated.

In the words of Carl Jeronimo from the Sons of Granada blog:

"My great grandfather was from  Andalusia, a small town called Jete. He was sent to Cuba in the second half of the 19th century, so my family has always considered itself Cuban.

"My father, Armando Jeronimo, took our entire family to Spain in the 1970s to visit relatives he had made contact with notwithstanding the fact that Cuban travel was prohibited at that time.

"In the 1990s,  I returned to Spain for the the third time with my wife, to visit family and enjoy a lifestyle so different from the American.  We returned every year since then and my love affair for Spain only grew.

"We purchased a home on the south coast of of Granada in 2001 and like any Granadino, Federico Garcia Lorca, the poet and playwright was omnipresent, since the war was not that far in the past and people were awakening to new freedoms and an awareness of the history that had been prohibited by Generalissimo Francisco Franco for 40 years.

"I delved into the life of Lorca since his home and hangouts were nearby and I had always enjoyed his plays and poetry. I visited his old haunts, sat at his piano, felt his presence and found myself engulfed in his life and death. In 2008, the Spanish government decided to look for Lorca’s remains as people searched for closure in the mass graves of the Civil War. Lorca’s was highlighted.

"Thus, the idea of a novel based on historical fact, with an outcome that could have transpired."