The Wonders is a novel about women and their choices about sex, class, roles, and family. It is a multi-generational family story. We see the themes of alienation, perseverance, and trauma being repeated in each generation. Through María, Carmen, and Alicia's we can trace the women's movement in Spain from the times of Franco to modern day.
María and Alicia are well developed characters. Their relationships with the men in their lives have depth as they navigate their untraditional lives. The story is told from different perspective and I did have to check back a few times to the beginning of the chapter to make sure I new who was narrating. This aspect could have used a more clarity.

I think I would have liked this book better if I had read it in Spanish. The translation is stilted. It lacks natural lyrical flow of the Spanish language. Since the author is a poet it imagine it would have been a beautiful read. I will add it to my list of books to read in preparation for the next school year (Spanish teacher prep). This is what we mean by lost in translation.

I found this book grew tedious despite the way it brought me into the daily lives of two women. It reminded me of the Navarro book, "Working Women," which is much shorter. I can't imagine a world where a woman would leave her child with relatives but I know it happens.

The Wonders is an engrossing story of two working class women in Spain, following them through their personal, familial, and societal struggles in the context of various historical events, from the end of Franco's dictatorship through financial crashes and recent political protests. The very minutiae of their interconnected lives is examined and described in prose that is both baldly honest and deeply rich. I found this book to be poignant, honest, and sensitive, and I respected and cared about Maria and Alicia throughout the events of this novel. Highly recommended literature and I look forward to what Ms. Mendel writes next.

Unfortunately, this marks my first DNF of 2022 - I always feel guilty setting a book aside unfinished, but after getting halfway through, this one just didn't resonate with me at all. Translated from the Spanish, this focuses on Maria and Alicia, grandmother and granddaughter - though their connection isn't immediately clear. Their stories unfold more in vignettes that skip across decades. Maybe if I was more familiar with Spanish history, the dates and events would immediately have more significance, but unfortunately, this translation doesn't offer much contextually to give a better sense of what's really going on politically and historically.

The characters aren't very likable or even sympathetic. I just couldn't connect with them (nor they with other people, so I suppose that makes it authentic). The choppy style (including my pet-peeve of head-hopping) makes it hard to feel like this is actually building toward anything. I think that more of a connection to Spain is needed for a reader to feel more connected to this one, I could have forced myself to finish, but the unlikable characters, lack of a plot and style just meant that this wasn't doing anything for me.

The Wonders by Elena Medel as translated by Lizzie Davis & Thomas Bunstead is the story of three generations - Maria, Carmen, and Alicia - and the issues, challenges, and changes surrounding the role of women. What I walk away is an understanding of the universality of certain experience and certain gender struggles across time and place. So many parallels across time and place - some days it seems like this conversation makes no progress at all.

Read my complete review at http://www.memoriesfrombooks.com/2022/03/the-wonders.html

Reviewed for NetGalley and a publisher’s blog tour

Happy ​​𝙸𝚗𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚗𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗𝚊𝚕 𝚆𝚘𝚖𝚎𝚗’𝚜 𝙳𝚊𝚢! I have a perfect book to share with you to celebrate! 🎉

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐖𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬 is told through two central characters born decades apart, but, in a sense, their lives parallel each other.

María and Alicia were both born in Córdoba but moved to Madrid in their teens. María leaves her daughter behind with her family, as she hopes she will earn enough money to care for her one day. Alicia escapes to Madrid after a family tragedy that leaves her once-wealthy family in shambles.

The women work jobs as cleaners, caretakers, and in retail. But they feel stifled, always worrying about others, always searching for that lost dream in someone or something.

The story opens and closes with the 2018 Women’s Strike in Madrid. This is poignant in many ways as María and Alicia give a face to the movement, humanizing it. Sadly, it is apparent that women across the generations are still struggling in all areas of equality.

In this moving debut from the prizewinning poet Elena Medel, we learn about women, their work, and their challenges. I was captivated by these characters as individuals, what they had gone through and how they persevered.

Thank you to @algonquinbooks @medelelena and @lizzie_davis_ for a spot on tour and a gifted copy.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the early. copy of this one in exchange for an honest review.

This story was about two women in different time periods trying to live their lives. The story was a lot of mundane details and because of this I only read about a third of it.

In 1969 Madrid, Maria worked hard to earn money enough to send home for the daughter she left behind with her family. While there, she's caught up in the modern movements within the city, including the political instability. Two decades later, Alicia is working at a snack shop after her father's suicide leads to the loss of the luxurious life she once had. The womens' lives parallel each other, and their paths cross at the 2018 Madrid Women's March.

Elena Medel is a literary sensation and poet, and this is her debut novel, which earned the Francisco Umbral Award for Book of the Year. That is a prestigious Spanish literary prize, and this translation by Lizzie Davis and Thomas Bunstead brings her lyrical style to an English reading audience.

We have the concerns of economic class, family ties, feminism, and who can give voice in politics all flowing through the novel as both Maria and Alicia struggle against the realities that fight to box them in.

Modern American readers might not realize how restrictive it was for women, not just from neighbors whispering about an unmarried mother, but laws outlining what women were allowed to wear or jobs they could work in. Maria's story thread in her youth outlines this reality, and Alicia's present has somewhat improved but is still restricted.

The translators kept the European style of writing, with longer paragraphs and dialogue worked into it with colons or commas, as well as separate dialogue tags we're used to. I found it easy to get used to, but I've read translations with a similar style before.

I could focus on the characters, who start off in their everyday life: Maria cares for other children and leaves her own daughter behind for her family to care for, and Alicia is a married shop-girl dissatisfied with the relationship she has and briefly escapes it by meaningless trysts with the men that pick her up. Dissatisfaction with this leads them elsewhere for fulfillment, and the reader is the one to first notice the possible connection between them.

Maria was always a hard worker hoping to be someone important or have a place in the wider world. Alicia was never really a nice person, taking pleasure in tormenting classmates and thinking herself superior just because she had money, and wasn't motivated to do much of anything aside from keeping busy. I felt bad for Maria for most of her story and didn't really like Alicia, for all that her part of the story drew me in. Thinking about it, though, Carmen had no real connection to others because she had no one consistent to depend on for comfort, so she had nothing to give Alicia. She then lied or taunted others to feel important when she felt nothing at all. It's sad how the little traumas get passed down, and the wonderful things we think we should have in life ultimately mean very little. Maria notes that everything comes down to money and power, and neither of them has it. They're the working class. Everything is a struggle, and every scrap of independence is hard-won and ultimately hidden. Much of those emotions are universal, so American readers will understand the emotions that these women have.

This is a thought-provoking novel, without an easy resolution.

The Wonders is set in Spain and tells the story of two Spanish women; one during the feminist movement and one who gets involved in the resurgence of awareness regarding women. From the 60's to the modern era, the struggles of love, money, power, class, and culture all still exist today and not just in Spain.

At fifteen, María is sent to her uncle and aunt in Madrid after she has had a baby. The main themes are love, money and power but women's rights and the place of women in the male-dominated society of the time are other themes.

I enjoyed the setting, with iconic places in the beautiful city of Madrid and the journey this novel took me on.

The attention to detail in this book is amazing, and the characters were well fleshed-out. The book is translated from Spanish to English but I could've easily understood the Spanish copy but I came across the English one first. I was pleased to see this featured as an Algonquin blog tour and knew it was one I had to request.

Thanks to Algonquin, Elena Medel and translator Lizzie Davis for my ARC in exchange for an honest and voluntary review.

4 stars

A captivating exploration of women living life on the margins in Spain. Although the story of two working class women unspools over decades, the sense of time in this novel is cyclical, showing how hard it is to get out from under the thumbs of from poverty and patriarchy despite societal "progress." This book reminded me of Elena Ferrante in its visceral exploration of the lives of working class women in Europe. I'm surprised at the author's decision to tell the story of a grandmother and granddaughter while leaving out the story of the mother in between-- adding this additional narrative would have only added to the richness of the tapestry. I think this author beautifully portrays specific moments in times--I enjoyed reading it, but the overall effect was lacking... the parts did not add up to an impressive whole.

Thanks to Algonquin and NetGalley for the ARC!

THE WONDERS is a beautifully written book that didn't fall at all close to the kind of book I most love reading. The loose stream-of-consciousness style was too detailed, and had too close a focus on everyday experiences for me to remain engaged and enthusiastic about my reading experience.

The observations are lovely and the author does a great job of painting a moment. The book illuminates a way of life that isn't often the subject of literary fiction. She does an excellent job of using the constraints of the point of view she chose to tell the story as a way into the daily lives of many characters and situations.

So here is one of those rare occasions when I can enthusiastically recommend a book to someone who isn't me--it's a good choice for someone who finds reading pleasure in an accumulation of sense impressions and experiences, rather than for gripping highs and lows.

This book has been translated from its original text. While the story was interesting, it is too mature for the middle school students here.

Book: The Wonders

Author: Elena Medel

Rating: 3 Out 5 Stars



I would like to thank the publisher, Algonquin Books, for sending me an ARC.



I will say that this one had just enough to keep me going. There were times that I almost put this one down, but something would happen and I would have to find out what was going to happen next. I think a lot of this has to do with this being a translated work and that something was lost in translation. There was just certain events and sequences that didn’t flow the best. Emotions and some character development just seemed to be lost. I think that was the whole issue. Things were just lost in translation.



The characters were pretty solid, but they just seemed to be lacking something. They were complex, but not complex enough for me. I don’t know how else to put it. Their pain and suffering just did not come across the page how I would have liked it to. the emotional pull just wasn’t there. It was like there was some kind of disconnect going on with them. Like with so many other things in this book, there just seemed to be something missing. I was connected to their story, but I wasn’t fully invested in it.



The writing was there, but, again, there was something missing. Again, I think a lot of it has to do with the translation and I don’t understand why. I have read translated works before, but I have never felt that there was something missing before. It feels like a lot of the emotions and gripping storytelling were just lost in the translation. I don’t know how else to put it.



I also felt like there was a lot of things left unfinished. I get that many books end this way, but I just felt like there was more things left unsaid and not answered than there was. It was just like the book ended and there should have been so much more to say and so much more story to write. I don’t know if there are plans for a second book or not-if that’s why things are the way they are. I don’t know.



This book comes out on March 1, 2022.

Elena Mendel’s The Wonders explores women's lives from the 1960s through to the modern era. It follows the paths of Maria and Alicia, two Spanish women, where one woman gains more awareness about the feminist movement, and the other is an active part of supporting feminist movements. The Wonders does a beautiful job of focusing a lens on everyday concerns and provides an unflinching perspective on the women’s movement. I do wish that the plot was a bit less meandering, more focused and that some loose ends were better tied up, but it’s an overall intriguing read.

Two parallel stories of unhappy women in Spain. A young woman whose father dies tragically stumbles listlessly through life. An older woman recounts the child she had to leave behind.

I really liked this book, we meet Maria in the 1969, a young mother going through it, she doesn't have a lot of money. She decides to leave her home and her daughter behind with her family, to save up so money and realizes that its a cycle, and not all is as it seems, and then we come to the present times, and we get to read about women marches in Spain, and a new character Alicia, this book was very different, and I loved how while one gained awareness the other was right there in the middle of all of these happenings. The book left me hanging in some parts and I felt at times that there were different stories instead of ONE story at times as well. But overall its so different, I liked it.

Thanks Netgalley and Algonquin for giving me the opportunity to read this book.

3.5 ⭐

This book was translated from Spanish to English. It was just okay to me, but that could have been because it left something from the translation.

A story of love, money and power. Maria is the main MC in the book. When she is fifteen she is sent to her uncle and aunts in Madrid, after she has had a baby, Carmen out of wedlock. Maria soon finds out that life revolves around who has the money, power and sometimes love on their side. She grows up in a time when men have all the power and money, all the say in a home, and a woman has none.

This is her story, as well as, her daughter and granddaughter. It is triple POV, but Maria is the MC in my point of view. It, also, goes back and forth between time periods.

I was left wondering what actually happens. The book just left off and in my opinion left some stuff unfinished. Overall, a 3.5⭐ solid book.

Publishes March 1, 2022

Thanks to Netgalley, Algonquin Books and Medel for the Kindle Version of the book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I have always been interested in what life was like for women in another country. Elena Medel’s The Wonders answers that question, to a certain extent. Set in modern times and in the last 1960s, the narrative follows the paths of two Spanish women. Maria and Alicia. One is gaining awareness during the Feminist movement and the other participates in the resurgence of Women’s awareness.
The author does a good job of demonstrating how difficult being a woman can be and how integral choices have a profound impact, especially on progeny. Women have been told for over 50 years they can have it all, but what no one admits is there is an exacting price they have to pay.

I was initially very intrigued by this book- the idea of two different women of two different times coming together at a Women's March.

But I was ultimately very confused about what was happening most of the book- maybe not what was happening by why?

I did discover this book is the translated version of a Spanish novel, which explains some of the instances of strange syntax.

Ultimately, this book was not for me. I struggled to get through it and be motivated to read.