Los Ingratos by Pedro Simón

Set in rural Spain in the late 1970s, this coming-of-age story follows a boy whose family moves to a remote village for his father’s teaching post, where a young live-in helper enters their home and quietly becomes the axis of his memories. Years later, the narrator revisits that time with a blend of tenderness and remorse, confronting class prejudice, the silence of adults, and the ingratitude shown to those who cared for them. A poignant meditation on memory, guilt, and the end of a world as the country transitions to modernity.