Along the Mediterranean coast south of Valencia, orange groves and fishing villages have given way to luxury villas, holiday resorts, and nightclubs. In the decades following Franco’s death, everything seems up for grabs, including the ideals of those who once dreamed of a different Spain.

When Matías, a disillusioned idealist, dies, his death forces those around him to confront their own past. Among them is his brother Rubén, a wealthy property developer who has made a fortune transforming the coastline into concrete. As old resentments and buried secrets resurface, a portrait emerges of a generation that has exchanged political convictions for personal wealth.

Set in the fictional coastal town of Misent, inspired by the rapidly urbanised coastline of the Valencian Community, Rafael Chirbes’s sweeping novel is both a family drama and a merciless dissection of modern Spain. Crematorium captures the greed, corruption, and moral decay behind the region’s property boom, revealing the darker side of the prosperity that transformed Valencia and its surroundings into one of Spain’s most coveted Mediterranean destinations.