May, 1936. A young girl travels to a small village in the mountains of Cadiz where she will carry out, for the first time, her vocation and profession: that of a teacher. Eulalia – or Lali, as her pupils call her – prepares to teach a group of children. Nervous, she reviews the modern pedagogical principles that she was taught during the Republic and which, shortly after the outbreak of the Civil War, will condemn her. Accused of indoctrination, she was arrested and could not return to the classroom during the dictatorship, becoming one of the victims of a process that affected a third of Spain’s teaching staff. Until thirty years later, an unexpected visit changes everything for Lali. This is the story of a teacher without students who struggled for a lifetime to return to teaching.
With this novel, José Antonio Lucero, renowned author of La vida en un minuto and La madrina de guerra, pays tribute to his profession and vocation, and shows us that a good teacher will always be a good teacher.