Tbr: The Songs of Manolo Escobar

 

    - The Songs of Manolo Escobar by Carlos Alba.

    - "Why were Pablito, my elder brother, and I dark-haired with olive skin when the rest of my classmates were sandy and pale? Why did our family have a second way of speaking which I didn't understand? Why was ours the only home I knew where the walls were dominated with pictures of men in spangly waistcoats and tight trousers?"

    - For Antonio, growing up Spanish in Glasgow is a nightmare - one of shame and potential embarrassment on every front. But there is no hiding his ethnicity: his domineering father and his gentle mother's quest for olives put paid to that. As Antonio grows older and begins to unravel his father's secret past, he discovers a truth that shocks and heals him.

    - During his journalistic career, Carlos Alba was Scotland Editor at The Sunday Times and education correspondent at The Herald. His first novel was the acclaimed Kane's Ladder.