The Sands of Time

THE SANDS OF TIME 

By Sidney Sheldon

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• SUMMARY

The Sands of Time is a novel by Sydney Sheldon writer. The story unfolds in Spain following the attacks and confrontations between fanatic Basque terrorists led by Jaime Miro who is one of the main characters in the novel and the Spanish army led by Colonel Cocoa. These men maintain an almost personal fight and to this fight are dragged 4 nuns of the Cistercian convent to which Jaime Miro arrives fleeing of the army after rescuing to two companions Ricardo Medallo and Felix Carpio. To rescue his companions Jaime Miro dressed as a father to enter the cells and caused an accident as a distraction in the bullfight in which many people died, he explains that he did not want all of them to die but the accident had many murders and the Army pursues them. Jaime Miro abandons the convent before Cocoa arrives but this blind man in his search and revenge mistreats the nuns believing that they hid Jaime Miro, that's when begins the adventures for the four nuns.

The nuns who escape and are involved in this adventure with Jaime Miro are Lucia, Megan, Graciela and Teresa. At first when Jaime finds them he does not want to help but after thinking that if Cocoa finds them he is going to kill them or to obtain information on his plans he decides to help them to arrive at another convent. In this way they divide groups to meet in another convent and throughout the novel the author reveals each of the actions that lead the protagonists to that situation. Each protagonist has her own story and hides her secrets and fears beginning with Sister Lucia (whose real name was Lucia Maria Carmine) and who is far to be a nun, that nun's façade and her entrance to the convent is to hide from the Police, who persecutes her for being the daughter of the powerful mafioso Angelo Carmine who was caught with her sons, and in revenge Lucia kills those who betrayed him. Megan is an orphan who lived in an orphanage up to fifteen years always helping everyone, but when she was fifteen she was forced to leave the convent and went to the convent .she is grateful to God but she don not known really the world and for this reason when she lives this adventure with Jaime Miro has many doubts about her true vocation and the decision to be nun. Teresa and Gabriela were two girls who only found comfort in the church and for that reason decided to be nuns, Teresa suffered for living in the shadow of a sister much more beautiful physically and she could never overcome that feeling of inferiority and worse even when the only man Whom he loves escapes with his sister and when Monique (Teresa's sister) leaves him with a son, he intends to return with she and Teresa prefers to flee rather than face him and she becomes a nun. Graciela on the contrary was a beauty since she was a child and that was the cause of her suffering, growing up with a mother who was very beautiful as a young but with the passing years she refused to accept that she lost that beauty, the mother´s graciela try to demostrate that she continued be beautiful having a lot of mens, no matter that she shared room With his daughter and was one of these mens, the Moor who violated Graciela and his mother instead of defending her wounded her in an attack of jealousy. Having no place to go, Graciela also decided to enter the convent.

Each one faces their fears, in the trip lucia at the beginning only seeks to escape and to collect the fortune that his father had left for her in a zurich account in The Bank Leu, she looks to direct all its actions to that objective but although she does not want Show sympathy for the others also worries about them and ends up in love with Rubio the man that Jaime Miro assigned to him to be the custodian, when Rubio is hurt to defend her, it is reflected all his love for Rubio when going to the police to Ask for help even knowing that they will recognize and arrest her.

When Jaime Miro knows that Lucia and Rubio have been arrested he communicates to Megan and his companions and they decide to rescue Rubio but Megan begs him to help Lucia, this causes great admiration in Miro because he can not understand the mystery that is Megan, for even knowing that Lucia deceived she continues asking for help for Lucia, Megan achieved arouse interest in Miro because it's not like all the nuns, she prayed with fervor but also has the character of survival and struggle that very few have and whith That Miro is identified. This character is reflected in the two times that Megan saves him when he is betrayed by Amparo his partner or lover, who sends him into an ambush in a park and where Megan will find him and help him to escape in a cunning way without the Soldiers suspect that they were escaping in front of his face.

When Miro and everyone are safe in the Basque town Detective Allan Tucker finds them and tells Megan that Ellen Scott is looking for her and that she knows about her past and if she want know her past she should go with him, although she realizes that she loves Miro she wants know her past and who is her family ,she leaves and promises that she will return. Megan discovered that her parents did not abandon her, in fact they were the wife and brother of his father who decided to abandon her and say that he had died with their parents in an accident where they were the only survivors, all to be able to stay with all the money. But Ellen decided find to Megan  when she know that is sick and is going to die,Ellen want give to Megan all that is of her and transform to Megan into a business woman, with the capacity to run her business.

After a while the army catches Miro and when Megan finds out she tries by all means to rescue him since she has the money to buy people to help her. Finally, she gets them to pretend to Miro's death and they end up together and happy, Lucia and Rubio end up buying a farm living with three children in a quiet place far from the world of luxuries but also so full of false friends that Lucia knew .

• VOCABULARY

-Anathema: a person or thing detested, accursed or consigned to damnation or destruction.

-Witnesses: a person who sees an event, typically a crime or accident, take place.

-Manhood: the state or time of being a man.

-Bullfights: a public spectacle, particularly in Spain, Portugal, and Latin America, at which a bull is baited in a ----highly stylized manner and then usually killed.

-Behemoths: a huge or monstrous creature

-Stench: a strong and very unpleasant smell.

-Retaliation: the action of returning a military attack; counterattack.

-Foreseen: be aware of beforehand; predict.

-Bishop: a senior member of the Christian clergy, typically in charge of a diocese and empowered to confer holy orders.

-Cistercian: a member of an order of monks and nuns founded in 1098 at Citeaux, near Dijon, France, under the rule of St. Benedict.