Fireflies — Ana Maria Matute

Fireflies, although set in Barcelona during the Spanish Civil War, could readily take place in a bellicose situation anywhere in the world. It contains an exposé of the chasm between generations, between rich and poor, between materialism and idealism. This novel has a socioeconomic/psychological relevance that leaves the reader pondering the consequences of war and the nugatory effects of imposing status quo values on adolescents who are in search of their own truth, their raison d'être. The story centers on the lives of two adolescents from opposite levels of society whose redemption lies in their short-lived mutual love, which ends tragically.