Ildefonso Falcones
La Mano di Fatima

THE REVIEW

"La Mano di Fatima" is set between the 1500s and 1600s in the southern region of Spain, Andalusia.

It tells the long and painful battle of Hernando, a man trapped between Christianity and Islamism, rejected, on one side, by Muslims because he was the result of an assault on his (Moorish) mother by a priest from whom he inherited blue eyes and therefore contaminated by a culture that in every possible way tries to annihilate Islam on Spanish soil, and on the other side by Christians because he is a Moor and thus a heretic.

In the 900 pages of the novel, Hernando struggles to adhere to the dogmas of Christianity imposed on him and his people by the Catholic Monarchs who succeeded to the Spanish throne, while secretly remaining faithful to his one God, amidst the abuses by his stepfather, the tumultuous love for Fatima, bloody uprisings, misunderstandings with his people, unfortunately few moments of happiness, and endless tragedies.

In summary, this novel speaks of the compromises needed in life to get by, of sacrifices and hope, and of how it's right to fight for what you believe in even when the world is against you.

Reading "La Mano di Fatima", you are captured by the magic and charm of Andalusia, a warm land with many facets where the interweaving of Christian and Muslim cultures, fortunately, blends in our times, revealing how it's possible to coexist with different beliefs, a concept expressed in the novel through the Cathedral of Córdoba, the ancient Mosque of the Caliphs, a spectacular union of two different yet similar cultures, in which the protagonist Hernando finds a peace that can still be felt today.