Olivos de cal is a rural novel worthy of Delibes at his most sober. The skilfully drawn characters hide their feelings to such an extent that their silence is itself another character. Two stories in one place, the landscape of Jaén, unfurl through the years leading up to the harsh decade of the 1930s. The author's mastery of vocabulary envelops you from the first page, like the hazy light of the lamp in the farmhouse. Stroll through the olive grove and smell the fennel and rosemary, feel your own breath in front of the firing squad or as the bombs fall, let yourself be rocked under the branches of the flowering olive tree. Fran Toro's novel sounds like [the flamenco singers] Lole and Manuel, smells like wet earth and tastes like oil. "This novel is like a woman you can feel breathing as she climbs the slope of life among centuries-old olive trees." by Susana Fortes