La forja de un rebelde

La forja takes the story from the narrator's childhood in Madrid at the beginning of the 20th century, at a time when his mother was a laundress. The novel follows the protagonist throughout various jobs, as an apprentice in various businesses and working as a courier without pay in a bank, a patent office, and other trades. He describes the stark class differences in Madrid society. La ruta tells of the author's experience in the Rif War in the Spanish protectorate of Morocco; the massacres suffered on both sides, due to the incompetence and corruption of the Spanish military commands in the conflic. La llama details he experience of the Spanish civil war during the so-called Battle of Madrid. The protagonist, who works as a liaison in the Republican facilities at Telefónica, ends up exiled to England in 1938.