The Blind Sunflowers: Stories of Defeat and Tragedy

The first story tells of a national army officer, tired of cruelty and violence, who committed suicide by surrendering to the Republican side before the final surrender of Republican troops. The pro-Franco side occupied Madrid, and though he was shot and injured, he wandered for days until he was arrested again. He then took a gun from a guard and killed himself.

In the second story, Manuscript in Oblivion, we read the diary of a militant killed while trying to escape. He admits to being accompanied on his flight by his eight-month pregnant girlfriend. The child was born on the road, and the mother died in childbirth. The father survived a few weeks, hiding in the countryside, using cows to feed the child. Defeat is a recurring theme.

The third story, The Language of the Dead, tells of a militant who casually announces to a colonel that she met his son and was in charge of his treatment before he was shot. The colonel brings his wife to ask her to tell the policeman son about it. Instead of telling the truth (that he was a thief and murderer), she says he was a hero. She brings him food and clothing each time he comes to talk with him. However, she eventually tires and reveals the truth about the child. Then she is shot. In this story, the officer from the first story acts as a supporting character.

The final story, The Blind Sunflowers, mixes first-person narrative of a deacon and the child, with fragments in the third person. It tells the story of a mole, the child's father, a Republican who sought refuge in a closet after the war. A deacon becomes infatuated with the mother and visits the house under the guise of concern for the boy's education. He attempts to rape the woman, and the man comes out of the closet. The deacon leaves and calls the police, and the mole commits suicide by jumping out the window in front of his wife and son.