A Million Drops

An intense literary thriller that tears through the interlocked histories of facism and communism in Europe without pausing for breath

Gonzalo Gil is a lawyer stuck in a disaffected life, in a failed career, trying to dodge the constant manipulation of his powerful father-in-law. This monotonous existence is shaken up when he learns, after years without news of his estranged sister, Laura, that she has committed suicide under dramatic circumstances. Her death pushes the fragile balance of Gonzalo's life as both a father and husband to the limit.

Resolutely investigating the steps that led his sister to suicide, he will discover that Laura is suspected of having murdered a Russian gangster who had kidnapped and killed her young son. But what seems to be revenge is just the beginning of a tortuous path that will take Gonzalo through the untold annals of his family's past that he would rather not face. He will have to enter fully into the fascinating story of his father, Elias Gil--the great hero of the resistance against fascism, the young Spanish engineer who traveled to the USSR committed to the ideals of the revolution, who was betrayed, arrested, and confined on the infamous Nazino Island, and who became a key figure, admired and feared, of Spain's darkest years.

Suspenseful, dark, and thrilling, A Million Drops is a visceral story of enduring love and revenge postponed that introduces a master of international crime fiction to American readers.

Víctor del Árbol was born in Barcelona in 1968. He spent five years as a seminarian at Our Lady of Montealegre and later studied history at the University of Barcelona. As the recipient of the Nadal Prize, the Tiflos Prize, and as the first Spanish author to win the Prix du Polar Européen, he has distinguished himself as a notable voice in Spanish literature.