Her grandmother lived in Istanbul, and Quintana Street, where the Alicante Central Market bombing claimed many lives, kept a silence that begged to be broken. Bianca Aparicio Vinsonneau chose to give voice to these memories in a novel, beats of time, Backlight, elevating the stories of women who stood on a different front of the war. The setting is a city with few men, where women shoulder more roles and navigate uncertain futures with resilience and grace.
The Alicante author introduced her book this morning, accompanied by a guided walk through key city sites that shaped the Civil War and inspired the narrative itself.
“Being inside a shelter is always overwhelming, even if you have visited it many times,” the writer said after visiting one of these sanctuaries. Seneca Square. “I imagine my grandmother being in a shelter as well, and I wonder what she thought then.”
Bianca Aparicio, who self-published her first two novels, shadows of africa and coconut island, reminds readers that history is both grand and intimate. Her writing foregrounds the women who defended the city. In the first book she presents data drawn from meticulous research and document study; in the second, she opens a window onto life, love, and the daily acts of courage performed by those living in the Santa Cruz neighborhood. The stories invite readers to see the present and consider the future without rigidity, especially during wartime.
The author stands beside the Stanbrook model at the AA Bunker Interpretation Center in Alicante, a moment captured by Alex Dominguez. The image anchors the connection between memory and place, a reminder of how artifacts and landscapes carry historical echoes into today.
The eldest character abandons her midwife training, moving away from traditional duties to help in a shelter on Constitution Street where the wounded were tended after the Central Market bombing. Another character follows her father into a watchmaking trade, yet serves in a wealthy Indian household on gomis Street. A third studies and begins work as a clerk at a local grocery, at Altamira Street. The narrative threads weave traditions, love, and family secrets into a luminous watch that binds the past to the present.
Across roughly 700 pages, the novel stays relentlessly cinematic. It aims to pull readers from one chapter to the next, guiding them toward truth while letting them discover the reasons behind the characters’ actions. The tale unfolds starting on July 18, 1936, tracing the military uprising that altered countless lives and introduced a cast of formidable women who must move forward as men go to the front, factories roar to life, and families rely on new routines. Courage and talent emerge as essential tools in a city where women shoulder the load and the future remains unsettled.
bunkers of Alicante
Three sisters form the core of the story, each distinct and carrying a thread of her grandmother within her. Their differences illuminate how women interpret the world and shape their decisions. The trio’s varied paths reflect the author’s belief that portraying women through a single lens would miss the rich diversity of female experience during wartime.
Lesser known facts
The city itself becomes a secondary hero in beats of time, with references to Teaching and Optometry, Santa Maria Basilica, the Main Theatre, the Central Market, the Old Town, the Co-Cathedral of San Nicolás, the former Casa de Socorro, and the port where the Stanbrook departed. Each site appears as a vivid stage for the protagonists’ lives. The author describes decades of research, scouring stones, archives, memoirs, and testimonies to illuminate lesser known truths and subtler details that still shape the present.
One example is the bread shelling episode: Italian planes that dropped bombs also scattered bread wrapped in fascist messages to demoralize the population. The story of a stray dog, known as the lion dog, threads through the narrative as a quiet observer waiting near the Teatro Director and Casa de Socorro, a constant presence that witnesses the sirens and the bombs. Bianca Aparicio has collaborated with various NGOs in Africa, and she notes Alicante’s pivotal but often overlooked role in the Civil War. The city’s significance in collective memory deserves careful attention and public awareness.
beats of time will be presented at the Guardamar del Segura Library at 19:30 tomorrow, Friday, inviting readers to engage with history through a living, human lens.