Dulce Chacón's book has had an immense success in Spain, no doubt because the novelist speaks with a just and powerful voice, and because she has allowed women - the most anonymous, the most suppressed, the most silenced - to speak out" Le MondeIt is 1939.

Dulce Chac¿n was born in Zafra (Badajoz) in 1954. A prize-winning poet and novelist, her life was cut short by cancer just as The Sleeping Voice was establishing her reputation throughout Europe.