«Carme Chacón has always lived as if her heart wasn’t turned backwards. She was made of courage, good sense, discipline, enthusiasm. She didn’t have it easy. She fought. A lot. Thirteen doctors were at the bedside when she was born. They didn’t name her for several days, just in case. But she survived.»

She also survived the low blows of politics, male chauvinism, love, heartbreak, the fear of failure. She is the symbol of a generation that grew up with freedom and believed in education as a path to upward mobility.

Chacón broke a part of the glass ceiling that still holds many women down when she became the first female defense minister in Spanish history. A women of progressive convictions rooted in her family’s history, a strong believer in equality, she modernized the armed forces and is the woman who came closest to leading the PSOE. She foresaw the break between Cataluña and Spain and the rise of the 15-M movement and tried to repair the old politics of privileged ingroups: «When we saw the left, we need to do what the left does.»

Journalist Joana Bonet has devoted years to writing an intimate and faithful biography of her friend Carme Chacón. She has shared voyages, conversations, and experiences with her. Hers is a moving portrait that reconstructs the lesser-known moments in the life of this Catalan politician. After Chacón’s death in 2017, the author reveals to us the human side of this great figure who played an important role in the life of this country, and who, in the words of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, «had a political ending too small for her grandeur.»