Pacienții doctorului Garcia

The year is 1937. Doctor Guillermo García Medina saves Manuel Arroyo Benítez’s life. The two form a close bond. Once well, Manuel vanishes. Guillermo thinks they will never meet again. Years later, Manuel comes back from exile. He has a secret task. He must join a group that helps Nazis flee. These Nazis are fugitives, on the run. Clara Stauffer runs the group. Her base is in Argüelles, a district of Madrid. She is both German and Spanish. She backs both Nazism and Falangism.

Almudena Grandes blends a thriller set in the past with a spy novel. She draws on events few know about. These took place during World War II and Franco’s rule. The plot links Spain and Argentina. It tracks escape routes from Madrid to Buenos Aires during 1945–1955. The book has 45 chapters. They deal with friendship, love, and betrayal in politics. They show life under bombing. They also show the strain of secret work for one’s country. The action spans Germany, England, and France. It also reaches Soviet Russia and the United States.

Grandes was a Spanish writer from Madrid. She lived from 1960 to 2021. This book forms part of her series Episodios de una guerra interminable. It won the 2018 Premio Nacional de Narrativa. Ana-Maria Tamaș translated this edition from Spanish. It is part of the Anansi Contemporan collection. Its original title is Los pacientes del doctor Garcia.

RTVE made the book into a TV show in 2023. Javier Rey played a lead role. So did Tamar Novas and Verónica Echegui.