Customer Reviews (1)

Cenizas del Alba (Ashes of Dawn)
The richness of the characters created by Stella Sole gives us a wide vision of life in the rearguard during the Spanish Civil War in a city, Barcelona, turned into a standard of the republican Spain. The author transmits magnificently the feelings and struggles to which all of them face up during the difficult years of a war of which she, herself, is an alive testimony.

The novel begins in the previous years of the conflict during which the main character, Vicente Alcoyán, meets Raúl de Mora with whom he will be have a deep friendship. Raúl lives surrounded by a halo of mystery. He moves in the highest spheres in an international level. Before the beginning of the war, he reveals Vicente his intentions, he knows that in Spain it is going to break out a fratricide conflict and when it finish, another of bigger dimensions in Europe. Stars had revealed him so, some time ago and that is why he was preparing the Rescue Net.

When the war breaks out, Raúl sets the Rescue Net in motion which unique and humanitarian purpose is to save human lives of any site even in the front as in the rearguard. Its members are infiltrated everywhere. They form a complex framework, which extends in all the places of the country, being Raúl de Mora who guides his agents tirelessly. Vicente becomes one of the most valuable agents, he devotes himself to this risky work and he puts his life at risk constantly.

In parallel, Stella Sole shows us in all its cruelty, the difficult surviving of the Bárcena's family who have been stripped of all their goods from the beginning of the war. They are obliged to live as outlaws in a city which has turn its back on them and to hidden their true identity due to the prosecution to which part of the civil population is submitted because of its ideology.

The author describes in a masterly way the tensions and reactions that war causes in people, during which the best and the worst of each person flourish proving Stella Sole's deep knowledge of the human being. She goes into the personal evolution of the characters and specially the one of her main character. She opens the door of their inner world and at the same time she shows us the very depths of their feelings. So, it is inevitable the identification of the reader with Vicente, a hero with his human site full of weakness and contradictions to which he faces up in order to carry out his mission above all.

The scenes where the action takes place go from the bombing the civil population suffers, to the activities in the campaign hospitals and the battles in the front and the framework of the Rescue Net, together with the variety of situations that appear in the novel. All of it confers a vivid and intense realism. However, what distinguishes Stella Sole's work is her particular vision of war on the margin of any partisanship and from a point of view mainly humanist. Her central core, the Rescue Net, is an example of love to humanity because it is an organization without any kind of material interest in which its members devote themselves to a hard work without thinking in themselves. ... Read more

Product Description
This novel explores the depths of human drama by unraveling the mysteries that lie within the secret pages of a desperate woman's diary.Christina's diary reflects her personal tragedy as well as that of a once civilized but now decadent society, from which the war machine annihilates all life in its path of destruction. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

An especially reflective and intensely compelling story
The Memoirs Of Christina Morris is a superbly crafted novel by Stella Sole which is written in the style of a memoir. In 1943, Christina Morris is a London woman who has committed high treason and has been sentenced to execution - yet her death is postponed because she is pregnant, and her unborn child is deemed innocent. The prisoner's caretaker urges her to write her memoirs, and so unfolds a harrowing tale of love, the crushing press of a war machine, the depths of betrayal, and the essence of the human spirit for good or bad. The Memoirs Of Christina Morris is an especially reflective and intensely compelling story.

Spying for the Germans during WW-II
Christina Morris is blackmailed by the Germans into spying for them during the dark days of World War II. Discovered by the English, she is sentenced to death, but is able to write her memoires which form the bulk of this novel.

THE MEMOIRES OF CHRISTINA MORRIS is translated from Spanish and some of the awkwardness in the novel may come from the translation rather than from the writing. I found the use of quotation marks for internal dialogue and occasionally clunky English to be distracting from a potentially very interesting story.

Readers should feel free to skip the first hundred pages, turning directly to Christina Morris's memoires. Christina's problems with falling in love with inappropriate or unavailable men and loyalty to her family give the Germans a chance to blackmail her to spying for them. Unfortunately, Christina never considers going to the English, or simply daring them to carry out their threats which would do more harm to the German effort than to herself. This illogical element in Christina's life is completely consistent with the character and not a writing flaw, but it did serve to make her less sympathetic to me.

Author Stella Sole's use of herself as a secondary character is amusing, especially the way that Christina perks up when she hears that Stella Sole is going to be working with her. Perhaps in the Spanish version, more of this tongue-in-cheek humor comes through. ... Read more

Product Description
Christina Morris es una apasionante historia de amor, donde la crudeza de la vida enfrenta a la protagonista en la eleccion entre el amor y ella misma, triunfando siempre el amor. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

- A CORAGEOUS WOMAN -
Profound and moving, Memoirs of Christina Morris narrates the intensive life of its main character: first Christina Wyman and later Christina Morris, this young English woman writes her memoirs from a cell of a military prison. She has been sentenced for spying for the Germans, thus betraying England, her native country although against her will. She is guilty of having committed a crime but is innocent in that she had no choice. Her silence to not involve loved ones, who are really victims in the same way she is, automatically condemns her. The strong nature of the main character is present from the first chapter to the last. The power of destiny is clearly visible throughout her active life.

It is the 23rd January, 1943 and the day looks harsh and cold in the English capital. Christina Morris is judged and condemned to death. She has betrayed England and, in times of war, traitors are punished with the ultimate penalty, at dawn she will be executed.
The people of England feel dismayed. Some hate her while others suffer intense anxiety. At the doors of the London Military Prison, a crowd of journalists wait impatiently for the front page news of the next morning newspapers.
Imprisoned inside her cell and accompanied by Father Thomas, the chaplain who had been assigned to her, Christina faints. Doctor Hannon's duty is to save her while a halo of life remains in her bruised body.
After a medical examination, the veteran doctor discovers the reason for her loss of consciousness: The patient is carrying a child in her womb. Christina Morris is pregnant. The execution has to be postponed until the child is born.
This is the period in which Chris decides to write her memoirs. We learn about her difficult life; the moments of happiness and how the power of destiny has jostled her with the objective of carrying out the mission that has been entrusted to her. She suffers day in day out because of the evilness of humanity. She narrates the events and tells us the reasons that have forced her to get involved in German counterespionage; and tells us about the people that with love and affection shared her agony and made her incarceration bearable.

Memoirs of Christina Morris is not only a novel about espionage and war, it is also about love, intuition, faith.. it shows us treasons and resignation, passions and sacrifices, it speaks to us about a strong woman with a strong sense of values. Also it tells how she resigns herself and keeps her faith and beliefs embracing her fate despite the events that she is forced to endure. It is a novel about the continuance of life in the face of death.

Stella Sole has managed in Memoirs of Christina Morris that simply by closing ones eyes, one can imagine oneself in front of the characters, sharing their experiences and becoming part of the world created by the novel. The fact that it is a true story and that the narrator is Christina herself, intensifies the feeling for reader, making the harshness and happiness more acute and poignant. This novel creates a constant need to know more yet ironically we are swept up in the movement of the action and the beauty of the story and the prose, so that we do not want it to end. In Memoirs of Christina Morris Stella Sole tells the story from a spiritual point of view going beyond the specific to the universal.

I trust that Stella Sole will receive a warm reception among the literary public, since she has demonstrated with this majestic novel her ability to transmit the essence of life and this is inexhaustible.

EL VALOR DE UNA MUJER
Atrayente y profunda, Memorias de Christina Morris, narra la intensa vida de su protagonista: Primero Christina Wyman y más tarde Christina Morris, esta joven inglesa escribe sus memorias desde una celda de la cárcel militar dónde está presa. Ha sido condenada por espionaje favoreciendo a los alemanes, traicionando así, contra su voluntad, a Inglaterra, su patria. Es culpable de haber delinquido pero es inocente puesto que se ha visto obligada. Pudiendo salvarse decide callar condenándose automáticamente, para no implicar, así, a seres a los que ella ama intensamente y que son víctimas del mismo modo que lo es ella. La naturaleza fuerte de la protagonista está presente desde el primer capítulo hasta el último. El poder del destino es claramente visible a lo largo de su azarosa existencia.

Es 23 de enero de 1943 y el día se presenta crudo y frío en la capital londinense. Christina Morris es juzgada y condenada a muerte. Ha traicionado a Inglaterra y en tiempos de guerra a los traidores se les castiga con la última pena, al llegar el alba será ajusticiada.
La población inglesa se siente consternada. Unos la odian mientras que otros sufren una intensa agonía. A las puertas de la Cárcel Militar de Londres, multitud de periodistas aguardan impacientes, a la espera de una primera portada en los periódicos de la mañana.
Encarcelada en su celda y en compañía del padre Thomas, el capellán que le había sido asignada, Christina es víctima de un desvanecimiento. El doctor Hannon debe salvarla mientras quede un halo de vida en su magullado cuerpo, es su deber.
Tras un reconocimiento médico, el veterano doctor descubre la causa de la pérdida de conocimiento: En el vientre de la paciente se está gestando una vida. Christina Morris está encinta. La ejecución debe ser aplazada hasta que la criatura nazca.
Es en este periodo cuando Chris decide escribir sus memorias: Lo dura que ha sido su agitada vida;los momentos de felicidad; como la fuerza del destino la ha zarandeado con el fin de cumplir la misión que le ha sido encomendada sufriendo día a día a causa de las circunstancias y la maldad humana; las personas y razones que la obligan a ingresar en el contraespionaje alemán; los que con amor y cariño compartieron su agonía e hicieron su permanencia en la celda, privada de libertad, más feliz y llevadera.

Memorias de Christina Morris no es sólo una novela que nos hable del espionaje o la guerra, sino que también nos habla del amor, de la intuición, de la fe.. nos muestra traiciones y resignación, pasiones y sacrificios, nos habla de una mujer fuerte y de mucha valía como fue Christina Morris. Cuenta cómo se resigna y mantiene su fe y creencias abrazando a su destino a pesar de los acontecimientos que está obligada a vivir. Y es que esta novela hace hincapié en como de las cenizas siempre vuelve a nacer la vida.

Stella Sole ha conseguido en Memorias de Christina Morris que con simplemente cerrar los ojos, uno se imagine delante de sus personajes, compartiendo sus vivencias e introduciéndose en ese mundo que la novela crea. El hecho de que la historia sea real y el narrador de las memorias sea la propia protagonista, hace que los sentimientos del lector se intensifiquen viviendo las crudezas y alegrías de una forma mucho más penetrante y aguda. Esta novela provoca en el lector un deseo de conocer su contenido ansiando, a su vez, que el libro nunca acabe, puesto que Memorias de Christina Morris está repleta de dinamismo, belleza y acción. Y es que Stella Sole combinael argumento de sus obras con enseñanza de carácter espiritual que dan a esta obra un toque realmente apasionante.

Confío en que Stella Sole tendrá una calurosa acogida entre el público literario, puesto que ha demostrado con esta majestuosa novela su habilidad para transmitir la esencia de la vida, y ésta es abundante e inagotable. ... Read more