The actions of a person in the present can be read through the thread of their personal history. This idea sits at the core of Teresa Cardona’s narrative, which weaves a two time frame plot set in 1980 and 2015, beginning with a crime that anchors the story. A second guiding maxim emerges that questions ethics and morality in crucial matters such as terrorism or adoption, suggesting that people often hold dual positions that are debated in light of reason, faith, or even tradition. The line echoes an observation attributed to a guardian sense of judgment: choices become the compass by which one evaluates the balance between responsibility and conviction. Throughout the novel, those tensions surface again and again, inviting readers to weigh how law, personal conscience, and social norms intersect in difficult situations. The work underlines that life is mediated by decisions, each colored by the backdrop of time, culture, and the pressures of circumstance. The author’s broader body of work, including recent titles like Los dos lados and A relative good, continues to probe similar themes, connecting the exploration of ethical complexity with contemporary concerns. These novels—both published in 2022—appear as milestones that reinforce the recurring examination of moral bifurcation, a thread that critics and readers alike have noted in reviews. In contemplating these texts, one sees a persistent inquiry into how people navigate the boundaries between duty and belief, between collective expectations and personal integrity, and how those boundaries shift when past events echo into the present. The narrative suggests that the human impulse to judge and to justify is a constant force, shaping actions and interpretations across different eras. In a sense, the author crafts a conversation about what constitutes a good life when ethical choices are never clear-cut, and when the path forward must negotiate both the weight of history and the demands of the present.
