A Manuscript of Ashes

By: Antonio Munoz Molina, Edith Grossman - translator

Narrated by: David DeSantos

It's the late 60s, the last dark years of Franco's dictatorship. Minaya, a university student in Madrid, is caught up in the student protests, and the police are after him. He moves to his uncle Manuel's country estate in the small town of Mgina to write his thesis on an old friend of Manuel's, an obscure republican poet named Jacinto Solana.

The country house is full of traces of the poet's notes, photographs, journals - and Minaya soon discovers that, 30 years earlier, during the Spanish Civil War, both his uncle and Solana were in love with the same woman, the beautiful, unsettling Mariana. Engaged to Manuel, she was shot in the attic of the house on her wedding night. With the aid of Ins, a maid, Minaya begins to search for Solana's lost masterpiece, a novel called Beatus Ille. Looking for a book, he unravels a crime.

©1986; 2008 Antonio Munoz Molina; Edith Grossman (P)2010 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Already a contemporary classic, this work...is an enigmatic gem in the very best metafiction tradition." (Library Journal)

"This is a brilliant novel by an important writer unafraid of ideas, emotions and genuine beauty. 'A Manuscript of Ashes could be pleasurably read out of appreciation for any one of those qualities - or, perhaps, for the intricately plotted mystery that bears the novel's characters along like travelers on a dark, treacherous river." (Los Angeles Times)

Most difficulty listen

What disappointed you about A Manuscript of Ashes?

Very difficulty to understand the reader. With his accent, it was impossible to distinguish names and you lost the thread of the story and which character was being discussed.

What do you think your next listen will be?

A Nora Roberts novel.

Would you be willing to try another one of David DeSantos’s performances?

No

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from A Manuscript of Ashes?

Since I was unable to finish it, even though I listened to the first 10 chapters more than three times, I can not answer that question.

Any additional comments?

I would love to know what the story was about.