In THE HONORABLE OUTSIDERS Jack Higgins offers up an intensely atmospheric tale set during the tense days in Spain in the years leading up to the Spanish Civil War. A short, stately coming-of-age novel, we see this era anew through the eyes of a young Cambridge-educated, emotionally repressed Irishman who arrives in Andalusia to tutor the young children of a large landowner, surrounded by a countryside seething with poverty but bound inextricably by tradition. The portrait Higgins paints of this society beginning to tear apart is exacting and unforgettable, as his hero finds himself caught up in the maelstrom and must confront his own core set of values and beliefs.
Readers interested in Spanish history, twentieth-century Europe, and struggles for political and economic equality will want to read HONORABLE OUTSIDERS, an insightful piece of historical fiction about an important but relatively unknown period in during Spain's twentieth century. While much has been written about the Spanish Civil War, little has been written about the short, volatile period preceding the Civil War that followed the ouster of General Miguel Primo de Rivera, known as the Second Republic. The period began with a left-wing coalition government that promoted a number of social reforms including education for the mass public, which plays a central part in this book.
THE HONORABLE OUTSIDERS provides an astute view into the culture and politics of early twentieth-century Andalusia. As Edwin challenges social norms by promoting education for the peasants and befriending them, the reader learns much about the class conflict of the time, as well as conflict between the Church and social conservatives on one hand, and those seeking reform, including Spain's intelligentsia and "honorable outsiders," on the other.