Historical novels are more suggestive in that they focus on characters taken from authentic intrahistory, beyond monarchs, nobles, lords and others. And this novel The windows of heaven abounds in that tendency to tell what we were through the fictionalized experiences of characters from the town.
The will of the protagonist Hugo de Covarrubias and his adventurous spirit plus his eagerness to meet and learn make him the ideal character with whom to share a trip to the past, in this case to the XNUMXth century.
Young Hugo already understands that his destiny is not in Burgos, the place where he grew up and where the world was gradually becoming small. He could have bet on continuity, for earning a leading role in parental business, but he knows that his happiness would not be there. The happiness of a person in the fifteenth century or now is to be carried away by the dictates of the soul.
A restless soul like Hugo enjoys the frenetic adventure, not without risks. He embarks on a ship that takes him to Africa. There he did well, love awaited him, personified in Ubayda, and when he was again driven to flee he did so this time accompanied by her.
And sometimes the miracle happens. Only a restless person, willing to know the world, can find his safest destination. Back in Europe, Hugo learned about the stained glass technique, that marvelous system that relieved the weight of the walls and that illustrated biblical scenes with tricky plays of light.
Hugo strives in the art of creating those windows of heaven to which the faithful looked out to discover the magnificence of God.
You can buy the book The windows of heaven, the latest novel by Gonzalo Giner, here: