This book was not for me. I didn’t like anything about it and I ended up giving up and didn’t finish it

This is an interesting and clever book, telling the stories of two women, separated by time, as they both navigate the politics and expectations of their respective times.

Where this book soon becomes particularly special is in how the shadows of a previous time- and the actions, both big and small of its actors- loom large over the events of the current time.

This book has a real urgency and vibrancy to it, which I found fascinating.

I received an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you, NetGalley, for letting me read this book.

This is a book essentially about poverty, and how poverty has an intergenerational effect. The stories of Maria and Alicia run in parallel, in different times - and are fundamentally linked. It's a book about failing as a mother and failing as a daughter. It's a book about making choices when there are no choices at all.

The Wonders is set in Madrid, but it's set in a city that tourists don't see. A city of women doing menial jobs, exploited, trying to live their own lives in their own way, but thwarted by lack of money and by the patriarchal society they've been born into. It's readable, and it's important.