A Million Drops by Victor Del Arbol

Author : Victor Del Arbol
Title : A Million Drops
Published : 2014
Publisher : Other Press
Pages : 640
Genre : Thriller

     Gonzalo Gil is a disaffected lawyer stuck in a failed career and a strained marriage, dodging the never-ending manipulation of his powerful father-in-law. The fragile balance of Gonzalo's life as a father and husband is pushed to the limit when he learns, after years without news of his estranged sister, Laura, that she has committed suicide under suspicious circumstances. Resolutely investigating the steps that led to her death, Gonzalo discovers that Laura is believed to have murdered a Russian gangster who kidnapped and killed her young son. What seems to be revenge is just the beginning of a tortuous path that will take Gonzalo through the untold annals of his family's past.

     Sometimes you just need a really big book to sink your teeth into. The sort of book that will take you a good long week to read. Lately, it is to Spain that I have looked to for such books. So when I came across A Million Drops on my twitter feed I decided to delve a little deeper. Del Arbol is not an author I had ever heard of before I came across this book but from what I can see he is huge in his own country. The more I read about this book the more it seemed to be right up my alley. One of those books that seems fiendishly complicated that I was going to have to focus on it completely to keep up with the author. 

     So when it comes to the book itself we have to narratives running parallel, both following interesting characters. In the present, we are introduced to Gonzalo. A man trying to do his best as his world seems to be falling down around him. There were times when I truly had to feel sorry for him in this endless battle he seems ill-equipped to win. With each revaluation, it seems everything he thinks he knows or took for granted is falling apart to reveal some new horror. He is someone you want to root for and are willing to follow behind him just to make sure he gets to where he needs to be. And in turn, we go back to the past to his farther Elias and man of strong convictions and what becomes apparent an iron will. This is a man who did what he believed he had to. Giving little thought to how it would affect those that came after him. I can see various parallels between these two. And at times what is believed to be the right path and the wrong get more than a little blurry.

     This was a book that really did live up to all I had hoped for. Even at its hefty length, the author managed to cram in not just two complete lives but also a whole host of side characters. In doing so he has managed to take what might otherwise have been a crime novel and given me an education in Spain of the past and all the horrors that followed in its dictatorship. But also much more than that we see what normal people are willing to do and how far they are prepared to go.  It is also about the intertwining story of Spain and Russia and how at one time many traveled from one to the other in hopes of living out the communist ideal only to find it tarnished due to their nonrussian heritage. This book also contains an epic family drama detailing multiple generations and how certain actions can echo down the year only to have unforeseen consequences for them. At first, this may all seem like a very bulky and slow book to get into. But for me, at least the author's style made it easy to slip in and give you a thoroughly enjoyable book. 

     Overall I can find no complaint with this book, it gave me everything I was looking for in a story. It is dark and brooding and shines a light onto certain events that for most go unknown or forgotten. This is an author who I look forward to meeting again in the future.