Madrid! The city itself feels like a character in so many great stories. If you love getting lost in a book that transports you to another place, especially one as full of life as Madrid, then here are some novels you might enjoy.
They span different centuries and moods, but all use the city as their backdrop.
This is a huge, wonderful novel about Madrid in the 19th century. Galdós introduces us to two very different women. Jacinta has money and social standing, married into the wealthy Santa Cruz family. Fortunata comes from the working class, passionate and direct.
Both their lives revolve around the charming but careless Juanito Santa Cruz. You really see the different worlds they inhabit, from grand homes to crowded apartments, and how society treated women based on their background.
Galdós captures the shops, the streets, the social customs – it feels like you are walking through Madrid with them.
Imagine Madrid just after the Spanish Civil War, in 1940. It’s a tense, uncertain place under Franco’s new regime. Harry Brett, a British veteran wounded at Dunkirk, arrives. He is supposed to be a translator but is secretly a spy.
His mission involves an old friend from school, Sandy Forsyth, who is now a businessman mixed up in some dangerous affairs. The atmosphere is thick with suspicion.
You follow Harry through the scarred city as he tries to figure out who to trust while surrounded by secrets and the ghosts of the war.
This book drops you right into the cafés and streets of Madrid a few years after the Civil War. It doesn’t follow just one plot but jumps between dozens of characters over a couple of days. You meet writers, poor widows, cafe owners, office workers – all just trying to get by.
They face poverty and hunger, but they still have hopes and schemes. Cela shows their small joys and constant struggles. It’s a powerful look at everyday survival in a tough time, first published outside Spain because it was so honest.
Adam Gordon, a young American poet, is in Madrid on a fellowship. He spends his time in museums like the Prado, goes to parties, and tries to connect with people, but he feels like a fraud much of the time. He worries constantly about his experiences being genuine.
He translates Spanish poetry and navigates relationships, often through a haze of self-doubt and sometimes funny misunderstandings.
The story captures the feeling of being an outsider in a vibrant city during a time of political tension (the Madrid train bombings happen during his stay).
If you love old books and mysteries, this one is fantastic. Lucas Corso is a book hunter for hire, known for his skills and high prices. He gets tangled in two different quests. One involves verifying a chapter from Alexandre Dumas’s The Three Musketeers.
The other concerns a rare, demonic text supposedly co-authored by the Devil himself. Corso travels from Madrid to Portugal and France. He encounters eccentric collectors and dangerous characters in a search that blends literary history with dark secrets.
Madrid’s old bookshops and back alleys feel central to the hunt.
This is a classic children’s book from the 1920s, but adults love it too. Celia is a seven-year-old girl from a middle-class Madrid family. She asks endless questions and constantly misunderstands the strange logic of grown-ups.
Her observations about her family, her school, and the world around her are hilarious and often quite perceptive. Through Celia’s eyes, you get a real sense of family life and the atmosphere of Madrid during that era.
It’s charming and full of funny situations that come from Celia’s unique way of thinking.
Another Galdós novel set in Madrid, this one focuses on the Villaamil family. Ramón Villaamil is a decent man who has lost his government job and desperately wants back in to secure his pension.
He is surrounded by his family, including his wife, daughter, and grandson, who all have their own hopes and frustrations. The nickname “Miau” comes from the grandson’s perspective on the struggling adults around him.
It’s a sharp look at bureaucracy, unemployment, and the pressures of keeping up appearances in late 19th-century Madrid. You feel Villaamil’s desperation as he navigates the indifferent city administration.
This is a really strange and fun read from the early 20th century. Basilio, a young gambler, finds himself drawn into a bizarre mystery beneath Madrid. He discovers a hidden city populated by a sinister group of seven hunchbacks who hold secret knowledge.
The story feels almost like a fever dream sometimes. It mixes Gothic horror, science fiction ideas (for its time), and Madrid’s urban legends. Carrere creates a shadowy, mysterious version of the city where anything seems possible behind closed doors or under the streets.
Step back into 17th-century Madrid, Spain’s Golden Age. Diego Alatriste y Tenorio is a veteran soldier who now works as a sword-for-hire in the dangerous capital. He takes on risky jobs, navigates political plots, and frequently ends up in duels.
The book paints a picture of a Madrid full of poets, corrupt officials, spies, and swashbucklers. You can almost smell the taverns and hear the clash of steel. Alatriste is a man of honor in a treacherous world, trying to survive and protect a young boy under his care.