On this episode of Gateway Books by Crestance, we travel to post-war Madrid—a city of secrets, silence, and survival. Through Ruta Sepetys’ The Fountains of Silence, we follow the story of Ana and Daniel: she, a maid carrying the hidden grief of civil war; he, an American guest whose camera captures more than the regime would like.

But fiction is only the beginning.

We then turn to Los niños perdidos del franquismo (Lost Children in the Time of Franco), a searing collection of testimonies from those taken from their families under Franco’s rule. Finally, we explore Unearthing Franco’s Legacy, a powerful work of investigative history that examines how decades of silence are being confronted by scholars, judges, and the families of the disappeared.

This episode is a meditation on memory, loss, and the fragility of truth in the face of fear. It asks not only what was taken, but what remains—and who dares to speak.