The Exhumation: a novel

The things we do for others that we would never do for ourselves ... love and death in a world at war.

It’s 1937 and besieged Madrid lies in near ruins, its people struggling under nightly bombardments. Into this uncertain world, enter three Americans assigned with the task to find and exhume the remains of Robert Jordan—a member of the International Brigade killed in action—and bring him home for proper burial in the States. They are Jordan’s uncle and the two-man team hired for the job: the amoral but winsome Major Williamson and their interpreter, John, who tells us the story.

Set over the course of three days, amid vivid depictions of wartime Madrid, we follow the team through the violent drama that surrounds Robert Jordan’s exhumation, the human cost of the undertaking, and John’s and Maripaz’s, the beautiful piano teacher he meets during an artillery attack, fateful escape from Spain. More than a wartime tale of suspense set in a crumbling world, The Exhumation is a story about the meaning of loyalty, of love and loss, and finally, the unending search for a lasting ideal.