What to read (and watch) to understand contemporary Spain

livemint.com:

This article is part of our Summer reads series. Visit the full collection for book lists, guest essays and more seasonal distractions. Spain is visited by millions of English-speaking tourists every year, drawn by sun, sand, sangría and in some cases culture.

Yet the modern country is oddly little-known. Outsiders’ views of it are often fixed by the writing of George Orwell and Ernest Hemingway about the civil war of 1936-39, which was not only part of a global struggle against fascism but also an especially bloody episode in a century-long domestic battle between conservatives and modernisers. The victor, Francisco Franco, ruled as a dictator until his death in 1975.

Since then Spain has changed with extraordinary speed, becoming in many ways a “normal" western European democracy with a tolerant, free-wheeling society. That tolerance and the country’s political system have been tested over the past decade in several ways, including by an economic slump from 2008 to 2013 and by the rise of separatism in Catalonia. Both are proving resilient.

This selection of books and films includes some gripping works on the country’s history as well as explorations of the present democratic period from different vantage points. The New Spaniards. By John Hooper.

Penguin; 480 pages; $18 and £10.99 First published in 1986 and fully revised in 2006, this is still the best general introduction to modern democratic Spain. Mr Hooper, who is now The Economist’s Rome correspondent, reported from Madrid during the transition to democracy. He writes perceptively about Spanish society and culture as well as politics and regional tensions.

The Forging of a Rebel. By Arturo Barea. Translated by Ilsa Barea.