1748, Seville: Caridad, a recently freed Cuban slave, wanders the streets of the city. Her master is dead and she has nowhere to go. When she meets Milagro Carmona - a young, rebellious gypsy - the two women are instantly inseparable. Milagros introduces Caridad to the gypsy community, an exotic fringe society that will soon bring them love and change their life forever. From the tumultuous bustle of 18th-century Seville to the theatres of Madrid, the Barefoot Queen takes us into the murky world of tobacco smuggling and ther persecution of the gypsies. Showing us the birth of Flamenco, it is a historical fresco filled with characters that live, love, fight and suffer for what they believe.
Ildefonso Falcones’ first novel, Cathedral of the Sea became a publishing legend with over a million copies sold in Spain alone. It has since been published in over forty countries, becoming a European bestseller. In his latest blockbuster, The Hand of Fatima, Falcones is marking the four hundredth anniversary of the expulsion of the Moors from 17th Century Spain. Falcones is a practising lawyer in Barcelona where he lives with his wife and four sons.
