Feeling the Heat A Decade as a Foreign Correspondent in Spain - Raphael Minder - Bog

Raphael Minder landed in Madrid in 2010 to cover Spain for The New York Times just as the dark clouds of the financial crisis were about to burst into a full-fledged euro debt storm. A Decade as a Foreign Correspondent follows the turbulent and momentous events that have reshaped the country's political landscape: a secessionist movement in Catalonia, the end of Spain's two-party system, and a desperate attempt to contain the coronavirus pandemic. With a correspondent's keen eye, this book takes the reader on an extraordinary journey of discovery from the most remote corners of Spain, where an arid soil produces delicious truffles; to Moroccan hashish trafficked alongside migrants; to the historical repercussions of American nuclear bombs; and not least to the central square of Madrid, where Spain's radical left-wing movement was born. The book shines a light on Spain through colorful anecdotes that help explain the fraught present, as well as the charged past, of a nation that only returned to democracy in the 1970s. It offers an unbiased perspective on an emotionally-charged decade that has polarized Spain.