Passionate desires and history

Dawn in Seville by Marie Anne Zammit is a historical novel set in the time when Spain was torn by civil war. The year 1936 brought about the revolution, led by General Francisco Franco against the Republican Goverment and who later became Governor of the country. General Franco’s leadership opened paths for dictatorship, persecution of gays, Socialists, and a direct threat to freedom of expression and to civil rights.

This fictional work is set into two parts, one based on the reality of Rosella with all its struggles and pain, and the other about the heretic group known as the Cathars in the south of France. It is also a conflicting love story between homosexual love and conventional love.

The novel begins in Seville, with Rosella a young woman aspiring to become a writer, at the same time struggling to live between her inner world of mysteries and that of war.

After graduating, Rosella settles down in Madrid and there she crosses paths with Elena. Their friendship ends in a sexual relationship but it had to be kept secret.

But, Rosella is torn between her passionate desires and her inner doubts. In Seville, Rosella’s father, a medical doctor, is arrested and sentenced to death for association with Socialists and for participating in a conspiracy plot against General Franco. After her father’s death, Rosella encounters Miguel and the two become lovers adding to Rosella’s emotional conflict while arousing Elena’s jeo lousy. The search for justice and freedom of expression lands Rosella into persecution, torture, imprisonment and even threat of death. While in prison, Rosella, along with other prisoners, finds refuge in writing poetry, plays and her novel which parallely runs with her reality. Then one day dawns and changes everything. Will Rosella escape death? And which love will conquer?