The debut novel of the Spanish female writer Maria Dueñas sold 1.5 million copies as soon as it was published. In Spain, this figure is enough to explain the best-selling of the book.Nobel Prize winner Vargas Llosa commented that the book is "a magical novel full of intrigue, love, mystery and tenderness". Cut into the grand history through the perspective of a lower class woman.The novel is told in the voice of the heroine, Sheila, who spent her childhood in a tailor shop in Madrid. On the eve of the Spanish Civil War, she and a man left Madrid on the brink of the war and came to Tetouan, Morocco.Soon her boyfriend swept away all her property, and Sheila was trapped in Tetouan, unable to leave, seeing her future being destroyed.In order to make ends meet, Sheila opened a fashion customization shop, and her life quietly turned around.As the fashion store run by Sheila became famous, she had frequent contacts with Juan Luis Bedberger, the high commissioner of the Spanish Franco government in Morocco at that time, and his mistress Rosalinda Fox, etc. From then on, she began to intervene. influence history.After World War II began, Sheila returned to Madrid and went to Lisbon, all of which were to cover up her secret identity and unknown special mission.The plot of the novel is ups and downs, well-designed traps are hidden everywhere, and real historical figures and fictional characters intersect.The whole story describes the vital influence of several countries that were absent from World War II, and guides the future destiny of Europe.

The novel was born out of Spanish history, and there are many real historical figures appearing one after another.The story takes place in Tetouan, a city in Morocco, a country in northern Africa. From 1908 to 1956, Tetouan was the capital of Spain in the North African enclave. Hundreds of thousands of Spaniards from all social classes and backgrounds crossed the Strait of Gibraltar to start a new life in Tetouan.The author Maria's grandfather and grandmother married in Tetouan and gave birth to 5 children. The youngest daughter is Maria's mother. In 1956, the Spaniards left this land that has become the territory of Morocco, but the emotion for Morocco has been emerging in various literary and artistic works, which vaguely shows the good time the Spaniards spent in Morocco.Maria Dueñas, who teaches linguistics at the university, had no idea about the plot and characters of the novel at first. She just wanted to turn her attention to North Africa and recall what happened in this land at the beginning of the 20th century through writing. The spatial and geographical coordinates of the novel are determined.

"The memories of my family and those of the older generation of Spaniards who are still alive around me make me feel that it is not enough to describe this land superficially. I need to know more about what happened in this land and what kind of past." For this, Maria Dueñas consulted various sources: academic monographs, archives, old newspapers, and even interviews with people who had contact with those historical figures.Among the many historical materials, Maria Dueñas discovered a real person who had been forgotten by history - Juan Luis Bederberger. From 1936 to 1939, Bedberger served as the High Commissioner of the Spanish Franco government in Morocco, and once received Franco's brother-in-law and his confidant Ramon Serrano in Tetouan.After the Spanish Civil War, recommended by Ramon Serrano, Vederberger once served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Spain, and World War II broke out one month after taking office.After the start of World War II, although Spain did not officially participate in the war and always maintained a so-called neutral position, the Franco government actually stood completely with Germany.On the other hand, Bedberger was very obviously opposed to his own government and had close contacts with the British. As a result, he was indifferent and hostile to Franco, and was gradually on the verge of power and even faced the threat of death.Maria Duenas was fascinated by the experience of Bederberger, who found both the light and the dark side prominent in him, and many aspects of his life, such as his relationship with his mistress Rosaline Da Fox's contacts, etc., just changed the development track of Spanish history. "A number of real people played important roles in the Spanish Civil War and World War II. Some of them, ironically, have been blurred by time. So it was my task to bring them to the stage to recreate that Some major events in the frenzied years. So I had to integrate Bedberger into the plot of the novel, and use his life trajectory as the time coordinate of the novel."

But Maria Dueñas wanted to create a fiction, not a reconstruction of history, after all.She took advantage of the historical background that Spain was coveted by Britain, Germany and other countries during World War II. Political conspiracies and espionage activities were staged in this land every moment. She introduced intelligence and espionage factors into the novel, giving the narrative The process adds suspense.The completely fictional heroine, Sheila, the narrator of the story, is more like a link connecting the elements of the plot. The author lets Sheila weave needles and threads between reality and fiction to sew a historical costume.In the novel, Sheila is drawn by a fate full of twists and turns, and transforms from a helpless tailor into a woman who can control her own future and destiny. She joins the war in a special way and gains love in the war. The unique life path in troubled times is deduced in the ups and downs of history.Maria Dueñas once said in an interview with European and American media: "From the perspective of a woman who was involved in the war, I added some new elements to the traditional concept of that period of history. I think it is precisely because of a The combination of an unfamiliar environment and a new type of heroine is what makes it different." A commenter in Spain said: "Perhaps its success is because it appeals to various types of readers: readers who like historical novels will be attracted by some of the typical ones." Readers who like romanticism can read a passionate story, and readers who purely like suspense novels will be attracted by political espionage.”

The novel is unfolded from the perspective of Sheila from the beginning to the end. Although Maria Dueñas admitted that when creating the character of Sheila, she gave her the ideas of her inner world to a certain extent, but in the process of telling history in a fictional way, the author It does not go beyond the characters to grasp the work as a whole, but consciously separates the narrator from the story.Maria Dueñas said she had to resist the desire to tell readers more and always see the world and tell stories through Sheila's eyes.Especially in the description of important historical events, the historical depth of the narrator's field of vision must be limited to the era at that time, and must be consistent.

Maria Dueñas has been looking for a balance between reality and fiction in her creations, and she described the writing process as like walking a tightrope.Fictional stories should be based on history, but emphasizing history will also drag down the fictional story and make it a boring historical combing; while letting emotions develop and forgetting history for a certain fictional ending will damage the authenticity of the story .Capturing inspiration from historical details and interweaving truth and fiction, Maria Dueñas combs the context of modern European history in a unique way in this debut novel.

The title of the novel "A Stitch of Time" is full of metaphors.The heroine Sheila is a tailor, and stitches appear on every piece of clothing she makes; at the same time, each stitch of Sheila represents a Morse code, which is regarded by her as a tool in espionage and intelligence activities. meaning.What the novel tells is only an experience in the life of the protagonist, which is indeed a "stitch of time" compared to the distant history.At the end of the novel, Sheila puts it this way: "Our fate could have been this way, or it could have been a completely different ending, because our lives are not written down anywhere. Maybe we didn't even exist. Or existed, but no one I know. No matter what, we will always be on the back of history, living real and invisible in the dense stitches of time." This may be regarded as the best comment on the title and content of the novel.