Book description
The Tomb in Seville is an account of a journey Norman Lewis
made in l934 with his Sicilian brother-in-law Eugene Corvaja. Their
destination was the cathedral in Seville, site of the Corvaja family
tomb. Things, of course, do not go quite according to plan.
Spain is on the brink of civil war, and the travellers soon discover
that no trains are running. They walk a hundred miles on foot,
sleeping in caves, and seeing parts of Spain no tourist had ever
visited. By the time they reach Madrid, bullets are flying, and the
travellers are forced to dodge sniper fire as they go about their
daily business. Eugene by now has revealed his Communist sympathies
and Lewis, in loco parentis, has a hard job dissuading him from
volunteering for the People's Army. Forced to take a detour into
Portugal, they come across a village where a witch has recently been
burnt at the stake, before at last arriving in Seville. There they
find the Corvaja tomb, but it is not quite what they expected.
The Tomb in Seville is vintage Norman Lewis.
Norman Lewis is the author of thirteen novels and thirteen works of
non-fiction. In 1998 he was awarded the Heywood Hill Literary Prize. He
lives in Essex.
