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:''For the former funfair in Whitley Bay, see The Spanish City.'' ''Spanish City'' is the second novel by the British author Sarah May. It was first published in 2002 and is set in the fictional town of Setton on the north-eastern coast of England. The chronology of the novel stretches from 1926 until 1981, although much of the narrative is related by means of flashbacks. ==Plot summary== The novel begins circa 1980, when an ageing schoolteacher, Hal Price, is kidnapped at gunpoint by two teenaged brothers, Victor and Will. Hal is taken to a nearby café and, while Victor awaits a message, recounts the story of his life to Will. Hal tells of joining the army as a teenager in 1944 and being sent to Normandy where he befriends Perkins, an ambitious Londoner who has an affair with Stella Armstrong, a spirited nurse. After a mysterious shooting incident, Stella disappears, accompanied by Major Delaval, the son of a wealthy Setton businessman and landowner. After the war, Hal returns to Setton and becomes a teacher who enjoys dancing at the local Palace ballroom in the company of his cousin Ray Clarke, an undertaker. Perkins, who has become a private investigator, is engaged by Delaval to find Stella, who is believed to be travelling the world visiting funfairs and pleasure gardens. Delaval intends to fulfil his father's dream of building a funfair named Spanish City in Setton, with the hope of luring Stella to the town. As the funfair is about to open, Hal spots Perkins at the Palace and discovers that the body of a woman believed to have drowned in a boating accident has been delivered to Ray's premises. The woman, who is revealed as Stella, revives and is taken away by Perkins. Delaval arrives in Setton and tells Hal that he has an unrequited love for Stella, just as his own father once had a similar passion for Charlie, Hal's mother, who once worked for the Setton family and accompanied Delaval's father on a trip to Utah where the pair visited the funfair that was to inspire Spanish City. Perkins and Stella begin living together, and raise a son, Victor. It is an unhappy relationship, and Hal begins an affair with Stella, who becomes pregnant with Will. Perkins sets fire to his own car in an attempt to kill himself and Stella, and both are believed to have died, leaving Victor and Will to be adopted. Back in the present, Victor receives a message and takes Will and Hal to the abandoned Palace ballroom, where they are met by Ray Clarke and Irene Trench, a friend who knows the truth about the relationships between Perkins, Stella, the Price family, and the Delavals. Ray reveals that, although Perkins died in the car fire, Stella escaped and disappeared once more. Victor, furious at Ray's decision to withhold this knowledge, and at the truth about Will's parentage, opens fire with his gun while Hal shelters Will. In an epilogue, Hal and Stella pay a visit to the flooded ruins of the Utah funfair that inspired Spanish City. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Spanish City (novel)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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