"Manuel de Lope's subject is the fluidity of time and the pitilessness of war as played out in the lives of two women who quietly conspire to commit a victimless crime. The style is a marvel of precision and patience, resulting in an atmosphere so saturated with suspense that I found myself wanting to read more slowly, even as I breathlessly anticipated the next paragraph."---Valerie Martin, Author of the Confessions of Edward Day<BR><BR>"The Wrong Blood is a prose poem to the furtive compromises that mitigate grief, and allow human survival at desperate times. Written with elegant ambiguity: I loved it." ---Dave Boling, Author of Guernica<BR><BR>"The Wrong Blood is a powerful novel suffused from beginning to end with a terrible, suppressed violence. Its chief virtue lies in showing us that war---every war---is like a distorting mirror: the soul never recovers from the monstrous vision reflected there."---Mayra Montero, Author of the Messenger and Dancing to "Almendra"<BR><BR>Praise for Beauty in the Dark (Bella En Las Tinieblas):"This novel is a celebration of our language."---Gabriel Garcia Marquez<BR><BR>In the Basque Country in northern Spain, just before the Civil War, three men in dinner suits stop for a drink on their way to a wedding. Their trip is interrupted when their leader, the wealthy Don Leopoldo, has a stroke in the restroom of the bar. This bizarre and undignified event begins to weave together the lives of two remarkable women: the bride, the beautiful and distinguished Isabel Cruces, and Maria Antonia Etxarri, the bar owner's adolescent daughter.<BR><BR>Both women find themselves violently altered by the war, each alone. A local doctor is the only witness to the mysterious agreement they conclude in the loneliness and desperation of their mutual suffering. Many years later, a young student, grandson to Isabel, returns to the scene of the events to spend an innocent summer studying for law exams. As he goes about his work, he unwittingly awakens the ghosts haunting both Maria Antonia and the doctor, and through their memories the passionate stories of the past unfurl before the reader.<BR><BR>De Lope brilliantly reveals his incredible tale through flashes of memory and emotion, told in a winding torrent that expresses the cumulative nature of both history and nostalgia.