Abstract

La Fuerza del destino, published in 1997, is the third book of a trilogy written by Josefina R.Aldecoa. The action takes place in the late 1970’s at the time when a great number of exiles werecoming back to their country after Franco’s death: it was a time of joy for some, skepticism forothers. A new life was beginning, a new type of society was trying to define itself. Gabriela, aformer schoolmistress, had left Spain when the Republicans had been defeated (in 1939) and hadspent all her years in exile in Mexico, she was the powerless but often clear-sighted witness to theupheavals in a country she barely recognized end even understood. That was a time to draw thefirst social and political conclusions of the Transition. It was also a time to draw the vital andsentimental conclusions about her own life that was coming to its end.