Los abrazos oscuros

Although we want to lock it away with a key, the past always comes back and take what's due. 
Julia Montejo surprises us with a novel where desire , intrigue and suspense are installed in the life of a happily married woman.

From far away, while walking through the streets of Madrid or eating breakfast in the kitchen of her house, Virginia seems like a comfortable and established woman in a life in which she herself decided, after many years of adventures: now she has Alex, a splendid husband, two little daughters that adore her and a professional project that fills up her days. 

It's necessary to look a little closer to discover the strange hunger in her eyes, that cannot be satisfied with kisses or caresses as usual. Daniel, a man who hides almsot everything behind his tortoiseshell glasses and an impeccable suit, notices Virginia's desires that come from far away, and from the very night that they meet he will know how to control them. Hiis methods might seem unusual, but the cards are on the table and the game will take us far away, all the way to Virginia's childhood in a northern city, in a blue collar neighborhood where the houses seem like prisons and those who run away always pay the price. 

Was it worth the consequences to leave, to forget who we were, to betray the memories in order to save just those chunks of life that show the best of ourselves? Those are the questions that run through the pages of The dark hugs by Julia Montejo, a novel that tears Virginia's skin off and digs into everyone's memories. "We're going through life hearing badly, seeing badly and interpreting badly in order to make sense of the history that we tell ourselves."

Janet Malcolm