Ayesha Dean – The Seville Secret by Melati Lum (2019)

A challenging read with a lovely setting

(but Spanish language, history and culture should have been better researched)

This time, Ayesha Dean is traveling from Australia to Seville, Spain, but her travel companions are still the same of the first book of the series, Ayesha Dean – The Istanbul Intrigue.

Ayesha’s uncle David Dean is going to Seville to meet some potential clients for his international law firm and he suggested that her niece and her two best friends Sara and Jess might like to join him to visit the city.

All this seems to happen shortly after their travel from Australia to Istanbul, if you read the original version of The Istanbul Intrigue, but in the second edition the three girls are just sixteen years old. I didn’t like this change at all. The Istanbul Intrigue was quite good as it was, but when I browsed the new pages I found out that it had been rewritten. I felt betrayed! I understand if you want to correct typos or other mistakes, but you can’t change the book this way. You can’t compel me to re-read a story that I already know, so that the second installment make sense. It isn’t fair. It would have been better to let Ayesha and her friends grow up and attend their first year of college.

On the last plane, the one that takes the protagonists from London to Seville, Ayesha meets a boy who seems to be eighteen years old like her and her friends. Kareem Lansari is tall, with dark brown hair, olive skin and dark eyes, and he speaks with a British accent. He is the son of Algerian immigrants.

This Ayesha is such a lucky girl: during each travel she finds a handsome Muslim boy who could potentially be a perfect match for her. But have you already forgotten the Turkish Emre, Ayesha?

Kareem is going to Seville because his paternal grandfather Amine Lansari disappeared while he was on vacation there. He will be staying with María and Miguel, the same middle-aged Spanish couple that already hosted his grandfather.

“The narrow, paved street at the front of the hotel seemed very quiet at this time of the day. Ayesha remembered that the Spanish people enjoyed a siesta mid-afternoon which probably explained the current lack of noise and activity.” These sentences can be misleading and sound like a die-hard stereotype, because they seem to imply that most Spanish people do actually still take a nap in the afternoon while the truth is that they simply have their lunch break later than in other countries and during this time many stores are closed.

Ayesha tries to speak to María in Spanish and she does it quite right, but María answers using the masculine singular form “bienvenido” instead of the feminine plural “bienvenidas” to welcome the three girls?!

Amine Lansari liked to think he was a descendant of the Moriscos, Muslims living in Spain who were first obliged to formally convert to Christianity and later expelled from the country in the early 17th century. What he forgot to remember is that the Iberian Peninsula was already a Christian territory when in 711 it was conquered by the Muslim Arab-Berber force coming from North Africa that ruled it for about 780 years until the end of the Reconquista (Spanish and Portuguese for “reconquest”) in 1492. Who is the oppressor and who is the oppressed? It’s all a matter of perspective, like when discussing the fall of the Roman Empire, Italians, French and Spaniards talk of Barbarian Invasions while Germanic and Slavic peoples refer to the same phenomenon calling it Migration Period. The reason is obvious: if you are a descendant of the invaders or you culturally identify with them, you would probably try to legitimize the actions of your ancestors.

While looking for clues in Amine Lansari’s bedroom, Ayesha finds an ancient diary written in Arabic that Kareem translates for the three girls. The manuscript tells the story of Isaac and his family living in Seville in 1609. They were Moriscos obliged to change their names and convert to Christianity, but who secretly continued to practice Islam and speak Arabic. Isaac knew that the Moriscos were being expelled from Spain, but he didn’t want to leave the beloved land of his forebears to be sent to North Africa. Is it possible that Isaac didn’t realize that his forebears were most likely originally from North Africa and not from Spain?

The day after their arrival, Ayesha Dean and her friends go to see the iconic Giralda Tower and they visit the adjoining Seville Cathedral. After lunch they are ready to enjoy the Museo de Arqueología.

The following day, Ayesha and Sara fly to Córdoba with Ayesha’s uncle. Once there the two girls rent a car to visit the nearby ruins of the ancient city of Madina al-Zahra.

After the couple of days spent in Córdoba, Ayesha and Sara reunite with Kareem and Jess in the beautiful Plaza de España of Seville. This book is full of so many lovely places! I’d really like to visit them one day.

The next stop is a royal palace called Real Alcázar, but then Ayesha decides to pay a second visit to the Museo de Arquelogía and she’s kidnapped while she’s looking for some clues in the offices at night. I had a déjà vu: Ayesha was kidnapped also in the first book of the series. I would have preferred a different literary device this time, a little more variation, you know.

What I really enjoyed of this second volume is Isaac’s diary and especially his moving and impossible love story with a Christian young lady of the court named Sofia. He’s only a gardener and she will soon be married to a Lord.

During her imprisonment, Ayesha meets Kareem’s grandfather who had also been kidnapped by the same gang. The criminals are interested in an ancient necklace and the cunning and brave Ayesha saves herself and the old Amine pretending to be able to locate that piece of jewelry. Ayesha is a keen observer and thanks to her great problem-solving skills she is always able to get out of trouble.

The curator of the museum is finally arrested for stealing from the excess inventory. He had always chosen items that weren’t on display. Along with Mr Smythe, also his three minions and the unfriendly front desk man Manuel are sent to prison.

Amine tells Ayesha and her friends that he has also a second ancient diary and that Isaac was his ancestor.

Sofia invites Isaac to her wedding and during the congratulations she gives him a ball of paper with a message hinting at a necklace and a dress.

Ayesha finds Sofia’s wedding dress in a museum and it really has a gold necklace hidden among its fabrics. Sofia had stored Isaac’s love message inside the locket.

Ayesha’s time in Seville is over and Kareem will be leaving with his grandfather the next day. He invites her to visit him and his family in London, but Ayesha thinks she won’t see him again soon. She’s a little sad, but she knows that this feeling won’t last too long and she’s ready for her next adventure.

Mistakes

“Ayesha was now standing on an aerobridge, waiting to board a plane to Seville, Spain. Her uncle, David Dean, was standing just ahead of her (…) Ayesha looked up as Uncle Dave (…) tapped her on the shoulder.” This passage feels awkward, as if something is missing, because how could Uncle Dave tap Ayesha’s shoulder without before turning towards her if he was standing ahead in the queue?

“The narrow, paved street at the front of the hotel seemed very quiet at this time of the day. Ayesha remembered that the Spanish people enjoyed a siesta mid-afternoon which probably explained the current lack of noise and activity.” These sentences can be misleading and sound like a die-hard stereotype, because they seem to imply that most Spanish people do actually still take a nap in the afternoon while the truth is that they simply have their lunch break later than in other countries and during this time many shops are closed.

“back pack” should be “backpack” (one word)

“hand shake” should be “handshake” (one word)

“Maria” should be written “María” in Spanish

“si” (meaning “yes”) should be written “sí” in Spanish; “si” without the accent means “if”

“bienvenido” (masculine singular) should be “bienvenidas” (feminine plural) if you are welcoming two or more women in Spanish

“Museo de Arqueologia” should be “Museo de Arqueología” (Spanish, unlike English, is one of those languages that use accents)

“Collar de Pajaros” should be “Collar de Pájaros”

“Mudejar” should be “Mudéjar”

“Madre mia” should be “Madre mía”

“Sevilla” (Spanish) should be “Seville” (English) in the English translation of Isaac’s diary

“pescaito frito fried fish” should be “pescaíto frito (fried fish)”

“zanahorias alinadas” should be “zanahorias aliñadas”

Lack of consistency: the names of some Spanish dishes are capitalized (Ajo Blanco, Espinacas con Garbanzos) while others aren’t (pescaíto frito, calamares, zanahorias aliñadas)

“sangria” should be “sangría” in Spanish

“Uncle Dave sat back and took a small sip of his red wine, sangria.” Be careful! Sangría is not just red wine. There’s a reason if the Spanish words for “red wine” are “vino tinto” and not “sangría”: they’re not the same thing! Sangría is an alcoholic beverage made with wine, fruit and other ingredients.

“AlAndalus” should be spelled “Al-Andalus”

“However, you couldn’t say things were perfect,” he added slowly, “but Muslims, Jews, and Christians lived together in relative stability, and I believe intermarriage was fairly common.” This sentence should be rephrased as follows: “However you couldn’t say things were perfect,” he added slowly, “Muslims, Jews, and Christians lived together in relative stability, and I believe intermarriage was fairly common.”

“middle ages” should be “Middle Ages”

Inaccuracy: “A short time later, the three friends arrived at the city cathedral connected to El Giraldillo, the Giralda Tower.” El Giraldillo is the statue on top of the Giralda Tower and not the tower itself.

“The Christians built additions to the Giralda in the fourteenth century, after an earthquake had destroyed the top of the tower. The four original copper domes were replaced with a cross and a bell, and a further bell tower had been added in the sixteenth century making the full tower approximately 104 metres high.” In the passage above, “had been added” should be replaced with “was added” to respect the correct chronological order of the events.

“Real Alcazar” should be “Real Alcázar”

“Cordoba” should be “Córdoba”

“A donde me llavas?” should be “¿A dónde me llevas?”

“Martinez” should be “Martínez”

“We need Google translate…” should be “We need Google Translate…”

Inconsistency: “Ayesha Dean was always ready to solve her next mystery. It was sometimes as simple as the case of the missing gym bag in her last year at school” vs “But, you know, I do training in martial arts as well, and then, there isn’t heaps of time left after school and homework” Why does Ayesha tell Kareem she still goes to school even if in the first book of the series Ayesha and her friends “had just finished their final year at high school”? Because, sadly, the original version of the The Istanbul Intrigue has been replaced by a quite different second edition.

“a refreshing gelati” should be “a refreshing gelato” or even better “a refreshing ice cream”. I’m Italian, and I can tell you that reading “a refreshing gelati” is a sacrilege, because “gelati” is a plural noun, so it’s like reading “a refreshing ice creams”!

“Sanchez” should be “Sánchez”

“Leon” should be “León”

“Ayesha tried not to be freaked out about the thought of being locked in a dark museum and was rethinking the wisdom of hiding in the ancient Egyptian display where she knew that a couple of embalmed mummies lay only a few feet away. (…) Now is not the time to start thinking about djinns, she told herself. Instead, she focused on slowly feeling her way around the first mummy as it lay in state, long dead for over a thousand years.” Well, an ancient Egyptian mummy is surely far older than just over a thousand years.

“Alvarez” should be “Álvarez”

“Reparacion/Alteracion” should be “Reparación/Alteración”

“Reparacion” should be “Reparación”

“It seemed that in the hustle and bustle of items coming in and going out for repair, little bits and pieces seem to have conveniently gone missing from the museum’s collection” should be “It seemed that in the hustle and bustle of items coming in and going out for repair, little bits and pieces had conveniently gone missing from the museum’s collection”

“Ayesha thought she detected a slight Mediterranean accent” Nonsense. It doesn’t exist a Mediterranean accent, because the people living around its coast speak several different languages like Spanish, French, Italian, Greek and Arabic, just to mention a few.

“Suelta la arma!” should be “¡Suelta el arma!” even if the Spanish word “arma” is feminine, because singular feminine nouns beginning with a stressed “a” require the article “el”. Spanish police are supposed to know how to speak Spanish, aren’t they? And authors are supposed to write foreign sentences well if they choose to put them in their novels.

“Garcia” should be “García”