A Bookseller in Madrid: A Novel

How can the words of the past help heal the horror of the present?

For as long as she can remember, Barbara Spiel has always found solace in books. Born in Germany and having come of age in a tumultuous era, she flees her home country as the Nazis rise to power in the early 1930s. Her destination? Madrid. There she's determined to realize her long-held dream of opening a bookshop and creating a safe haven for young idealists and independent thinkers to come together to transform the world.

Yet Spain isn't immune from its own troubles. The winds of change are blowing through both city and countryside, and it's impossible to predict what will happen. When the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War puts Barbara and everyone around her in peril--including the Spanish Socialist parliamentarian she's fallen deeply in love with--the terror and hatred seem all too familiar. It's like Germany all over again, only with its own cast of extremist characters.

Hounded simultaneously by Stalinist checas, Francoist Facists, and the German Gestapo, Barbara fights to keep her bookstore the safe haven that she's always imagined it would be. But with war brewing both inside Spain and outside its borders throughout the entirety of Europe--and beyond--Barbara isn't sure who exactly she can trust, or if people really are who they claim to be.

A story told with tremendous heart and astonishing historical accuracy, A Bookseller in Madrid is ultimately a story about dreams--dreaming with courage when nothing seems to make sense, and dreaming with hope when words printed on a page are all you can hold on to.

© 2025 Thomas Nelson (Audiobook): 9781400347469

Release date

Audiobook: 1 July 2025