Our Last Days in Barcelona
One of our favorite things to do before a trip is read our way there.
Before we pack our bags, research restaurants, figure out public transportation, and build our list of things to see, we like to find stories that can help us imagine the place we're about to visit.
Not just what a city looks like today—but what it felt like before we ever arrived.
For our upcoming trip to Barcelona, I even booked a walking tour of the Gothic Quarter through Expedia, so I wanted to do a little homework before we arrived. I want to walk through those narrow streets and old buildings with at least a little understanding of the history that happened around me.
Enter one of my favorite ways to accidentally discover a book:
It had Barcelona in the title.
That was pretty much my entire selection process.
📖 Our Last Days in Barcelona by Chanel Cleeton.
And, as usual, I deliberately didn't read the summary before starting it.
I know. This probably sounds strange to a lot of people.
But I love going into a book without knowing exactly what I'm getting myself into. If I read the back cover first, I start forming expectations about the characters, the plot, the romance, the mystery, and where everything is going.
I'd rather open the first page and let the story surprise me.
And this one definitely surprised me.
I Thought I Was Reading a story about Barcelona
When I picked up Our Last Days in Barcelona, I was expecting Barcelona.
What I didn't expect was Cuba.
Or Spain's connection to Cuba.
I knew about the historical relationship between Cuba and Florida. That connection is something I've encountered many times in travel, history, food, and stories.
But I realized just how little I knew about the connections between Cuba and Spain, particularly Barcelona.
Suddenly, this wasn't simply a book I had picked up because I was going to Barcelona.
It was becoming part of the trip preparation.
The story moves between Barcelona in 1936 and Barcelona in 1964, following different generations of the Perez family and connecting their lives through family, love, political upheaval, and secrets.
In 1936, Alicia Perez travels from Cuba to Barcelona with her young daughter, Isabel, at a time when Spain is on the brink of civil war. The world around her is changing rapidly, and her own life is becoming increasingly complicated.
Decades later, Isabel finds herself back in Barcelona in 1964, this time searching for her sister Beatriz.
And that's about as much of the plot as I'm going to give you.
Because you should discover the rest yourself.
A Story About More Than Barcelona
What makes the book so interesting isn't simply the mystery of what happened to the Perez family.
It's the way Cleeton uses history to show how much of our lives can be shaped by circumstances we never chose.
Where we're born.
When we're born.
Who is in power.
What our family expects from us.
What we're willing to sacrifice.
And, perhaps most importantly, what happens when the life we want doesn't fit neatly into the life we're supposed to have.
The story follows multiple generations of women, and their decisions are influenced by the enormous events happening around them.
The Spanish Civil War.
The rise of fascism.
The Cuban Revolution.
Exile.
Immigration.
Family expectations.
Love.
Loss.
And the complicated question of what exactly makes somewhere home.
The historical backdrop isn't just decoration. It changes the choices the characters are able to make.
And that's what I found so fascinating.
Barcelona Through a Different Lens
There's something special about reading a historical novel set in a place you're about to visit.
Suddenly, you're not just looking at a map.
You're imagining people walking those same streets decades ago.
You're imagining what buildings might have looked like before renovations, tourism, modern transportation, and today's bustling Barcelona.
And then you start wondering:
What happened here?
That's exactly what I'm hoping will happen when we take our Gothic Quarter walking tour.
I don't want to simply walk through the Gothic Quarter and take pictures of beautiful buildings.
I want to wonder who walked those streets before us.
What was happening in Barcelona when those buildings were new?
What did these streets look like during the Spanish Civil War?
What did Barcelona feel like in the 1930s?
What changed by the 1960s?
And how much of that history can still be seen if you know where to look?
That is one of my favorite things about traveling.
A destination starts as a place on a map.
Then a book gives it a story.
Then you arrive—and suddenly you're walking through a place that feels much more alive.
The Perez Women
Without giving away the story, I will say that the women in this book are what kept me turning pages.
They are strong, complicated, imperfect, loyal, stubborn, romantic, independent, and sometimes completely conflicted.
And I appreciated that their choices weren't always simple.
It's easy to look backward at history and think we know what someone should have done.
But when you're actually living through uncertainty, political upheaval, family pressure, and limited choices, things aren't nearly that simple.
Cleeton's characters constantly face that tension between what they want and what they're expected to do.
And that made the story feel surprisingly relatable, even though the circumstances are so far removed from our own lives.
My Favorite Part: The Questions
One of the things I loved most about this book was how often it made me stop and think about the role that timing plays in our lives.
There's a passage that really stuck with me:
“The most important events in my life have come down to timing. If I had been born in a different country, in another moment in history, if I lived on firm ground instead of a country ruled by ever-changing political shim, who would I have become?”
That idea is HUGE.
How different would our lives be if we had been born somewhere else?
At another point in history?
Under completely different political circumstances?
Would we still be the same person?
Would we have made the same choices?
Would we have fallen in love with the same person?
Would we have pursued the same career?
Would we even recognize ourselves?
And then there was another passage that I absolutely loved:
“It's easy to imagine what it would be like if things had been different, if I had been allowed to follow my heart, It's easy to imagine that if I had my choice, I might have chosen him.”
That one hurt a little.
Because who hasn't wondered about the what ifs?
What if we'd made a different decision?
Taken a different job?
Moved somewhere else?
Said yes?
Said no?
Followed our heart instead of doing what everyone expected?
Travel is actually one of the things that makes me think about this a lot.
Every time we travel somewhere new, we're temporarily stepping outside of our normal lives.
We get to imagine ourselves differently.
Maybe that's part of why we love it so much.
A Book I Didn't Know I Needed for This Trip
By the time I finished Our Last Days in Barcelona, Barcelona wasn't just the destination where we were going to spend a few days.
It had become a place with layers.
Cuba.
Spain.
War.
Revolution.
Exile.
Family.
Love.
Loss.
And generations of people trying to figure out how to build a life when history keeps changing the rules.
That's exactly what I want from a pre-trip book.
I don't necessarily want a travel guide disguised as a novel.
I want something that makes me look at the destination differently.
And this book did that.
Now I'm even more excited to take that walking tour through the Gothic District.
I'm sure our guide will point out buildings, streets, churches, plazas, and pieces of Barcelona's history.
But I'll probably be thinking about the Perez women, too.
Wondering what the city looked like when they walked through it.
Wondering what secrets those old streets might have witnessed.
And wondering how much of the Barcelona we're about to see has been quietly shaped by the history that came before it.
Should You Read It?
Absolutely.
Especially if you enjoy historical fiction, family stories, romance, mystery, or books that make you want to Google something every few chapters because you suddenly realize you know way less history than you thought you did.
😂
And if you're planning a trip to Barcelona?
Even better.
I went into this book thinking, "Barcelona is in the title, so let's give it a try."
I came out of it thinking, "Okay, now I really want to see Barcelona."
Cleeton beautifully weaves together multiple generations, two timelines, family secrets, political upheaval, romance, and the complicated choices people make when they are caught between love, loyalty, and history. The publisher describes the story as following Isabel's search for her sister in 1964 and Alicia's earlier life in Barcelona in 1936, as their stories gradually intertwine.
And don't worry—I'm intentionally not telling you what happens.
Some stories are better when you arrive without a map.
Maybe that's true of books, too.
Pack the book. Book the trip. And let Barcelona surprise you. 🇪🇸📖✈️
Our Trekking Pawns Rating
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 5/5 pawns
Would we recommend it? Absolutely.
Would we recommend reading it before visiting Barcelona? Definitely.
Did it make us even more excited about our Gothic District walking tour? 100%.
Did we expect to learn so much about the connection between Cuba and Spain? Nope!
Would we tell you to read the summary before starting it? Absolutely not. 😉
Sometimes the best travel preparation is simply opening a book and letting yourself get lost somewhere before you ever board the plane.
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