He can't outrun his past. She can't resist his pain.
In the sun-drenched, winding streets of Barcelona, life is measured in the aroma of smoked paprika and the late-night thrum of Spanish guitar. For Beth, the city is a vibrant canvas for a fresh start. For Teo, his subterranean work in the family wax museum hides a devastating secret.
When Beth steps into Teo Moreno's world, the connection is instant - he's a playful goof and she blossoms when he's around. Over shared meals of pa amb tomaquet in the warmth of the Moreno family, Beth and Teo grow close. Yet there is something which tugs at his heart and she is desperate to know what. Teo's mama tells Beth his wife Angelina walked out on him a year ago, leaving him a ghost of himself. But that isn't the whole truth. Nobody is telling Beth the whole truth. Grief is a master of disguise.
Behind the doors of the Moreno family home, lies a truth Beth could never have imagined. Teo hasn't let go of Angelina at all. As the slow-burn tension between Teo and Beth reaches boiling point, the weight of what really happened to his marriage threatens to shatter everything.
Perfect for fans of The Light Between Oceans and The Book of Fire, Muneca is a poignant, lushly atmospheric book-club novel about the moral boundaries of grief, the healing power of love, and the fragile secrets we keep to survive.
