This is an old-fashioned novel that traces the life of Sira Quiroga from her early years as a worker in an atelier to her involvement as a spy for the British during the early years of WWII.
It is quite a saga both in scope and length. It could have easily been at least two, if not three, different books. The author, Maria Duenas, is a professor of English philology both in Spain and the US. She has carefully done her research. Her descriptions of Morocco, Madrid, and Lisbon before and during the Spanish Civil War through to WWII are very accurate and detailed. Her characters, I found through doing a little research, are both fictional and real. Two of the more interesting are Rosalinda Fox and her Spanish lover Colonel Beigbeder, real people who play a very important role in the development of the plot.
To make a very long story short, the main character Sira survives a tragic love affair, a miscarriage and poverty to become a well-respected dressmaker catering to wealthy Germans living in Toutan, Morocco, and then Madrid. She is recruited by her friend Rosalinda Fox to work for the British spying on her wealthy German clients.
All of this sounds like a 1930s-1940s Hollywood film. Actually, I was reminded of the classic “Casablanca” but without Bergman and Bogart.
Written in an easy to read prose style, you do get invested in the characters. Unfortunately, the ending is too predictable, but it is a good ride almost to the conclusion