This is the best novel that I have read from XXth century Spanish literature. Through a deep emotional and profound language, Esther Tusquets introduces us into the world of this female narrator whose name is not spelled out in the entire novel. At the same time, El mismo mar de todos los veranos explores female subjectivity in an unprecedented way, and it is the first Spanish novel ever to portray lesbianism in its literature. Through this creative language full of metaphors, imagery, symbolism, and stories, the narrator introduces us into her world and into her mind, in fact, throughout the whole novel, it is the mind and experience of this anonymous narrator that the reader explores. El mismo mar de todos los veranos at the same time presents a critical portrayal of marriage, family, and heterosexuality, showing that women's experience is very limited; the narrator has always felt unsatisfied and a deep sense of failure when it comes to the traditional roles that are assigned to women (wife, lover, daughter, mother), leaving her with nothing else but language, words, metaphors, imagery and a deep desire to tell past stories. It is this intimate language that shows how female experience and homosexuality (in this particular case lesbianism) can only exist in isolation, and it is precisely in this state of isolation that past and present will coexist. What personally passionates me about this novel is that it portrays our precarious and insignificant existence as human beings; when we have lost the love of our lives, when all our dreams and expectations have never come true, or when they at least are not what we would have expected them to be or what we believed they should have been, when all the tenderness and love have gone away, we are only left with a deep sensation of sadness and emptiness, and the only things that we have left are language, words, metaphors, symbolism, and the desire to relive and retell a painful past.
An excellent masterpiece to be read by every contemporary reader.

I have been studying Spanish for 5 years now, and am currently teaching Spanish at the high school level. Although I am married to a native-speaker of Spanish and speak only Spanish in the home, I remained unsure of my usage, especially concerning certain verb tenses such as the conditional and the subjunctive.

I already own and have read a wide collection of Spanish grammar and reference books. Unlike the large, comprehensive volumes the serious language learner inevitably acquires, this book provides short, concise explanations which one is unlikely to forget.

Being relatively new to the teaching profession, Schaum's Easy Outline for Spanish has also helped me enormously in the classroom.

As the publishers promise, the reader does "get the essence the easy way".