Gardener for the English (444 pages) is Marcos Calveiro’s most recent novel and merited two of Galicia’s most prestigious literary awards, the García Barros for long novels and the San Clemente.

The novel is divided into seven chapters. In chapter 1, an author has almost reached the end of his novel, but to write the end he needs to visit the British Naval Cemetery in Rubiáns, near Vilagarcía de Arousa. His journey started four years earlier at this same cemetery and he feels it is appropriate that the journey also end here. The cemetery houses the mortal remains of various British officers and sailors. The most recent burials were those of the British consul in Vigo and his wife. But what draws him is the anonymous grave no. 1. He first began to write his story because of Delia Cores and her son, Edelmiro; the latter looked after the cemetery grounds for seventy years, until he was in his nineties.

There is then a section called ‘Arousa Bay’. It is February 1911, and the English fleet under Admiral Sir William May has just arrived in Vilagarcía de Arousa. There is lots of activity in the town, people getting ready for the invasion of sailors wanting to buy things and drink. The local brothel owner sends a telegram to her counterpart in Santiago, asking her to send reinforcements to cope with the demand. A young girl from the nearby village of Rubiáns, Delia Cores, has come into town to sell her family’s cabbages. She is drawn to the port, where it turns out a German flotilla has also entered the bay. She gets into a tussle with a local guard and is rescued by an English sailor, James, and a German sailor, Fritz. The two sailors end up drinking together and returning to their respective ships late at night. Delia continues to meet up with the two sailors and shows them around Vilagarcía. Even though they already know the town quite well, they are happy to have Delia guide them. They go down to the beach, where Delia gets her shoes wet and is disconsolate, so James and Fritz buy her a new pair of high heels. They also take her to a cake shop, which up until that moment she has only been able to stare at from outside. She feels very happy. There is a boat race between the English, the Germans and the Galicians. The English win, and James is invited to a high-society dinner to celebrate. Fritz takes Delia to a dance and tries to kiss her, but Delia resists him. She then bumps into James, and they kiss passionately. She tells him what has happened with Fritz. The next day, they arrange to meet, but James doesn’t turn up. He has been arrested for beating up a German sailor. Delia understands it must have been Fritz.

In chapter 2, the author is on the jury of a literary competition in Vilagarcía. They discuss aspects of local history: the life of the translator Plácido Castro; the mayor in 1936, Elpidio Villaverde, who fled to Portugal, fought in the Galician Popular Militias and then went into exile in Argentina; the painter Joaquín Sorolla, who did some drawings of local women; and the existence of a tunnel joining the local peak, Mount Lobeira, and the Vista Alegre Convent.

There is then a section called ‘Operation Milchfrau’. It is February 1915, and there is an information war going on in Spain between the English and the Germans. In Vigo, an old merchant seaman, Luís Ferrer Sánchez, spies for the British. He overhears the secretary of the German consulate, Herr Kindling, discussing ways to refuel German submarines and plans to inform the British consulate. In Vilagarcía, James, who is now a lieutenant working for the Naval Intelligence Department, is left in Arousa Bay by a warship, his mission to find out about the possible refuelling of U-boats. He uses this opportunity to visit Delia at night, and they lie together. He promises to return one day. Delia goes down to town, hoping against hope that she might bump into James, but the person she comes across is Fritz, who has a scar on his cheek as a result of the fight with James. Fritz asks if she has seen James since their last meeting. She says she saw him a couple of months previously. Fritz, who is responsible for organizing the refuelling of the U-boats, has a drink with some German sailors. They overhear the owner of the bar saying he has seen a man up on Mount Lobeira, spying on the estuary. He concludes that this must be his old friend, and rival in love, James and goes to find him. The sailors lay into him; Fritz wishes to locate his hideaway, which is where he will have his radio and codebook. The sailors are suspicious because Fritz seems to care for the man. The next day, Fritz takes Delia with him in an attempt to persuade James to tell them the location of his hideaway. James and Delia talk to one side and then run off in different directions. Fritz catches up with Delia, who is being assaulted by one of the sailors. Between them, they kill the sailor, and then Fritz shoots the other sailor. He lets James go, but he has the codebook. It turns out the fuel he arranged for the U-boats is too thick, but the Germans are pleased he has the codebook. Fritz joins one of the U-boats and travels to Croatia, from where the U-boats are about to launch a series of attacks on British ships in the Mediterranean. It is July, and the painter Joaquín Sorolla arrives in Vilagarcía to paint the estuary. He is entranced by a woman who walks along the beach, seemingly pregnant and seemingly waiting for somebody. He includes her in his painting, but is unable to paint her eyes because he has yet to meet her face to face. Finally, he comes across her in the centre of town and, after a glance passes between them, he manages to paint the eyes of Delia Cores in his painting.

In chapter 3, the author, who is called Modesto Filgueira, wonders whether it is worth continuing to write, given the low-key response to his works and the difficulty of surviving as an author. But he is obsessed by the story of Delia and Edelmiro and is eventually drawn to visit Edelmiro, also known as Miro, who has abandoned his house in Cea and gone to live with his daughter in Vilagarcía. During his visit, he learns from the daughter that Delia died soon after the start of the Spanish Civil War, she worked in a canning factory and was a trade unionist. Miro, however, is uncommunicative because of his age. All he can do is recite a poem by García Lorca. His daughter says it was thanks to Lorca that he learned to read. The writer then discovers an article in the press about a visit by the university theatre group La Barraca to Vilagarcía in 2006, seventy-four years after their first visit in 1932, a group that was once directed by Lorca.

There is then a section called ‘Dardanelles’. It is January 1921, and the English fleet has just arrived in Arousa Bay. There is also a seaplane – a plane that can land on the water, to the wonderment and dismay of the crowd that has gathered on the quay in Vilagarcía. One person who is not there to witness the arrival of the fleet is Delia Cores. She is now a washerwoman. Her son, Miro, is five years old. He almost drowned at the age of two, since when he has had a limp and doesn’t talk much, but Delia believes he will talk when he is ready. Delia has given up all hope of James ever returning. Once her belly became pronounced, she went to live with her aunt, Olimpia, a woman with broad experience who spent time in Havana. There is the habitual football match between the English and the Galicians, which the English always win, but this time the result is a draw to the great joy of the locals. One Englishman dies, having been hit in the belly by the ball, and there is a funeral, which Delia and another washerwoman witness. James had never really wanted to become a spy, he preferred being a simple sailor. He had worked in the Admiralty in London, moving model ships around a map, getting to know one of the main code-breakers, who invited him out to drinks with some of the secretaries, but James could never forget his time with Delia and Fritz back in 1911. When HMS Pathfinder was sunk by a U-boat in September 1914, the English realized that the German submarines were a real threat and sent James to Arousa Bay to stop them being refuelled. The operation ended badly, and James made it back to his ship, HMS Majestic, which then formed part of the Dardanelles Campaign and was eventually sunk by a U-boat in May 1915. James was among the casualties. At the end of that year, Miro was born.

In chapter 4, the author is on his way to the municipal library in Vilagarcía when he bumps into his childhood sweetheart, Cristina, except that Cristina has succumbed to drugs and is in a bad way, begging for money. The author feels ashamed and tries to avoid her. He feels angry about the way smugglers – later called drug traffickers – have ruined so many lives and become so rich in the process. The librarian shares with him the story of a communist schoolteacher, Enriqueta Otero, who after the Nationalist victory in the Spanish Civil War was a guerrilla fighter, was caught and imprisoned and later became a schoolteacher in the mountains of Lugo. The author is distressed how much Vilagarcía has changed, how little remains of its history. He sets out to visit Miro’s old house in Cea, now in ruins, and there he discovers a first edition of García Lorca’s book Poem of the Deep Song, which was given to Miro by his mother, who received it from the hands of Lorca himself.

There is then a section called ‘Ashes of Your Sea’ (part of a verse in one of six poems that Lorca is said to have written in Galician). Miro is on his way down to Vilagarcía when he comes across a lorry with a flat tyre. The lorry is carrying the members of the theatre group La Barraca, including Lorca himself. Miro helps them by going to fetch the local mechanic. Aunt Olimpia has died, leaving Delia and Miro her house in Cea and also a substantial sum in the bank. Delia buys three Singer sewing machines and, together with some other washerwomen, starts sewing for a living, but the bank goes under, there is no money left, and only Delia can carry on sewing, working all hours. Miro has to leave school so he can help her with her work. The Singer machine breaks down. In town, Miro comes across the theatre group again. Lorca invites him up onto the stage. The backdrop is ripped, and Miro suggests fetching his mother to repair it. Having got her Singer fixed, Delia comes and repairs the backdrop. Lorca then invites them to sit in the front row for the performance of Cervantes’ entremeses (interludes, short farces). The performance is a great success. Lorca invites them to attend the dinner with the dignitaries, but Delia feels she can’t, a social divide still exists, she is a lowly seamstress. Lorca presents her with a copy of his book Poem of the Deep Song. Miro is furious, he wants to stay with Lorca, and the next morning he tries to run away with the theatre group, but they leave before he gets the chance.

In chapter 5, the author visits his mother’s house to browse through the family library, where he used to read a lot when he was a child. He comes across a photo of his maternal grandfather, a cattle trader from Cornazo, who had been a Nationalist soldier and had died more than twenty years earlier, leaving his pistol to his favourite grandson, Arturo, a pocket watch to his youngest grandson and a broken wristwatch to his middle grandson, Modesto himself. The author is struck to see the pistol, an Astra 300, in the photo. He has heard that his grandfather was ambushed on Mount Lobeira and there had been a shoot-out with a group of anarchists and communists. He remembers reading about an anarchist, a stonemason from Cambados, who was taken out to be shot on the mountain in late 1936 and suspects his grandfather was involved.

There is then a section called ‘Heroes of the Alcazar’ (a reference to the Siege of the Alcázar of Toledo, in which a group of Nationalist soldiers held out against a larger Republican force). There have always been two Vilagarcías, that of the rich and well-to-do, that of the poor and lowly. Few people cross the border between these two. Delia, whose eyesight has become worse, sells her Singer machine and takes up a job at the canning factory. Miro seeks work in the local market, helping out where he can. He also visits the local Athenaeum to improve himself and to read books, starting with Victor Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. On 18 July 1936, the Nationalist uprising takes place. In a few days, the Nationalists seize control of most Galician towns, including Vilagarcía, where they enter the Athenaeum and burn all the furniture and books before Miro has a chance to finish the novel he has been reading. Eulalia, who also works in the canning factory, seeks refuge in Delia and Miro’s house in Cea. Her husband, Xeneroso, has taken to the hills around Vilagarcía, where some resistance to the Nationalist uprising is being organized, but the Nationalists send two seaplanes to bomb their hideouts. Delia and Miro try to conceal the worst of the news from Eulalia, who has become a shadow of her former self. When the parish priest leaves for Santiago to take part in the war against the communists, Delia and Miro stay at home. A group of boys come round and hurl stones at their house, which to begin with Miro thinks is a hailstorm. The Lafuente brothers have become the most powerful Falangists in town. Delia goes to ask the elder brother for news about Xeneroso, but has to pay a heavy price to get what she wants. It turns out Xeneroso is locked up in the dungeons of the town hall, with another two dozen people, not only sailors and workers, but also a judge, teachers and doctors. Delia takes them a basket of food each day, but Miro spots the same basket being taken out of the back of the town hall by another guard. Xeneroso is transferred to St Simon’s Island in Vigo Bay, a prison that few people ever leave. Eulalia loses her mind. They have to tie her to the bed to stop her harming herself, but she escapes and is later found with her head shorn, in the centre of town. Delia and Miro take her back to their house, but they are discovered. Delia is dragged away by the Falangists. In September, at the end of the Siege of the Alcázar, when Nationalist forces arrive to relieve the Nationalists holed up inside the castle, there are celebrations in the town and Miro takes refuge in his mother’s wardrobe, where he recites verses from Lorca.

In chapter 6, the author still has his suspicions about his grandfather’s involvement in the hunting down and murder of Republicans during the Civil War. He consults some historical documents, including interviews with contemporary witnesses. He finds one interview by a man born in the same year as his grandfather and carried out the year he died. He suspects this may have been his grandfather’s way of expiating his sins, but throws the cassette away, preferring not to expose himself to the truth in this instance. He then goes to visit Miro again, who explains that his mother was killed and he looked after the British Naval Cemetery for so long because he owed it to someone who gave the men what they were owed, but one man got away and Miro didn’t finish off the job because by then he was married and had a daughter. The cemetery was his refuge, and that of the German.

There is then a section called ‘As of Today’. It is April 1939, and a series of murders takes place in Vilagarcía – the younger Lafuente brother, then a manager at the canning factory and an employee of a grocery store. There is an attempt on the life of a corporal in the Civil Guard, Baloca. Another soldier, Ferreira, is given the job of finding out who the murderer is. All they know is that he seems to be acting out of a mixture of rage and despair and has a limp. Ferreira visits the elder Lafuente brother in the town hall, who keeps a record of all the goings-on while never taking part in them himself, but surprisingly he refuses to collaborate, even though his brother is one of the victims. The mayor imposes a curfew because a murderer is on the loose. After several weeks, the curfew is lifted. Ferreira and Baloca go out to celebrate, and Baloca confesses they killed a woman who shocked them all because when she died, she gave them a bold look and a smile. That night, Baloca is murdered in the local brothel. Ferreira goes to warn the elder Lafuente brother that he is next. He follows him to a house in Cea and decides to come back the next day. When he does so, a lame man escapes out the back. When he returns to the town hall the following morning, he finds Lafuente dead. He has a chance to shoot the murderer, but he lets him run away. After his mother is arrested and he has buried Eulalia, who died from the shock, Miro hides in the wardrobe with his two most prized possessions, the book of poetry by Lorca and a box of buttons. One day, he is surprised by a German soldier, who comes to the house and explains that he was friends with Miro’s mother. Miro asks him to take revenge on his mother’s killers, but the German refuses and goes away. Miro takes to the hills by Vilagarcía and there he comes across the German again. He is badly wounded. Before dying, he reveals to Miro that he has killed five of his mother’s murderers, but one got away – a cattle trader from Cornazo. Miro buries the German in a vacant grave in the British Naval Cemetery and promises always to return there, in gratitude for what he has done for his mother.

In chapter 7, the author searches his grandfather’s house for some documents relating to his time as a Nationalist soldier, but only finds notebooks with his dealings in cattle and the implements he used to prepare the cattle for sale. He then visits his elder cousin, Arturo, and asks to see the old Astra pistol, which his cousin has had cleaned. He can’t bring himself to touch it because of the past it contains. His cousin confirms that their grandfather was interviewed shortly before he died, and it is obvious that their grandfather is the one who got away, the missing member of the squad that killed Delia. The author leaves his cousin and visits the British Naval Cemetery, where he reads all the gravestones and finally studies the anonymous grave – that of Fritz – to see if he can find any clues there, but soon realizes that the past is the past and drives quickly back to Vilagarcía, where he finds Cristina, reminds her who he is, and they go to have a drink together. The book ends with a death notice for Miro, who has died, aged 95.

Gardener for the English is an excellent novel that successfully interweaves a contemporary narrative in seven chapters with sections about the past – the brief period of friendship between the English and the Germans before the First World War, the cruelties of the Spanish Civil War and the Nazis’ support for Franco’s Nationalist forces, and the personal stories of families that were torn apart by the conflict, the cowardice and bravery of individuals, and how the past can be a source of pride or shame, depending on the viewpoint. Edelmiro, Delia’s son, serves as a connecting point for the story – it is on him that the story is centred, on the figure of his mother and her friendship with James and Fritz, and on the author, who, while he confesses himself to be a coward, is eventually prepared to confront his own past and make amends by acknowledging Cristina. The novel received one of the most prestigious literary awards in Galicia, the García Barros Prize for long novels, and the San Clemente Fiction Prize awarded by Galician secondary-school pupils.

Synopsis © Jonathan Dunne