Spanish Stories

    B1Challenging · 5 min read · 509 words

    La carta dentro del libro

    The Letter Inside the Book

    A woman finds a decades-old letter tucked inside a secondhand book and decides to track down the person it was meant for.

    Topics

    • mystery
    • books
    • connection

    Tap or hover any underlined word for its English meaning.

    Listen to the story

    Learner-paced · Spanish

    What you'll encounter

    Grammar
    Preterite and imperfect narration, Pluperfect (había encontrado, habían salido), Subjunctive after emotional judgments (le pareció injusto que... hubiera llegado), Relative clauses (que, donde)
    Vocabulary
    Secondhand markets and objects (mercado de segunda mano, objetos viejos), Letters and correspondence (sobre, carta, sellos, buzón), Family relationships (hija, madre)
    Language skills
    Narrating a story with emotional nuance, Describing a discovery and its aftermath, Composing a written inquiry to a stranger

    Todos los domingos, Marta va al que se instala cerca de su casa. Le encanta buscar entre las mesas llenas de objetos viejos: relojes que ya no funcionan, discos y, , libros. Aunque tiene una estantería llena en casa, nunca puede comprar uno más.

    Show English
    Every Sunday, Marta goes to the flea market that sets up near her house. She loves searching through tables full of old objects: clocks that no longer work, scratched records, and, above all, books. Even though she has a full bookshelf at home, she can never resist buying just one more.

    Esa mañana, mientras una novela de , algo cayó al suelo. Era un sobre , sin , con un nombre : «Para Elena, si alguna vez lo necesitas.» Marta , lo recogió y, sin pensarlo demasiado, lo abrió.

    Show English
    That morning, while she was flipping through a hardcover novel, something fell to the floor. It was a yellowed envelope, without stamps, with a name written by hand: "For Elena, if you ever need it." Marta bent down, picked it up, and, without thinking too much, opened it.

    Dentro había una carta en 1987, escrita con una pequeña y cuidadosa. El autor, alguien llamado Tomás, le explicaba a Elena que se iba a vivir a otro país y que, aunque las cosas , siempre la recordaría con . Al final, había una dirección en Sevilla.

    Show English
    Inside was a letter dated 1987, written in small, careful handwriting. Its author, someone named Tomás, explained to Elena that he was moving to another country and that, even though things hadn't turned out as they'd hoped, he would always remember her fondly. At the end, there was an address in Seville.

    Marta se quedó pensando durante varios minutos. No sabía quién era Elena, ni si todavía vivía en esa dirección, ni siquiera si seguía viva. Pero algo en las palabras de Tomás la profundamente. una carta tan sincera nunca hubiera llegado a su destino.

    Show English
    Marta sat thinking for several minutes. She didn't know who Elena was, whether she still lived at that address, or even whether she was still alive. But something in Tomás's words moved her deeply. It seemed unfair to her that such a sincere letter had never reached its destination.

    Esa noche, en la historia. Buscó la dirección en internet y descubrió que, , todavía existía un edificio con ese número. Decidió escribir una carta , explicando cómo había encontrado el sobre y preguntando si alguien en esa dirección conocía a una mujer llamada Elena.

    Show English
    That night, she couldn't stop thinking about the story. She looked up the address online and discovered that, surprisingly, a building with that number still existed. She decided to write a letter of her own, explaining how she had found the envelope and asking whether anyone at that address knew a woman named Elena.

    Pasaron tres semanas sin respuesta. Marta casi había olvidado el asunto cuando, un martes por la tarde, encontró un sobre en su . Era de una mujer llamada Carmen, la hija de Elena. Carmen le explicó que su madre había muerto , pero que ella recordaba perfectamente la historia de Tomás, un amor de juventud del que su madre hablaba .

    Show English
    Three weeks passed without a reply. Marta had almost forgotten about it when, one Tuesday afternoon, she found an envelope in her mailbox. It was from a woman named Carmen, Elena's daughter. Carmen explained that her mother had died five years earlier, but that she remembered perfectly the story of a certain Tomás, a young love her mother used to speak of wistfully from time to time.

    Carmen le pidió a Marta que le la carta original, y así lo hizo. , Carmen le mandó una fotografía antigua: una joven Elena sonriendo junto a un hombre que solo podía ser Tomás.

    Show English
    Carmen asked Marta to send her the original letter, and she did. In return, Carmen sent her an old photograph: a young Elena smiling next to a man who could only be Tomás.

    Marta guardó la fotografía dentro del mismo libro donde había encontrado la carta y lo colocó, con cuidado, en un lugar especial de su estantería. Le gustaba pensar que, después de casi cuarenta años, las palabras de Tomás habían llegado a su destino, aunque no exactamente como él lo había imaginado.

    Show English
    Marta kept the photograph inside the same book where she'd found the letter and placed it carefully in a special spot on her shelf. She liked to think that, after almost forty years, Tomás's words had finally reached their destination — even if not quite the way he had imagined.

    , cada vez que Marta encuentra un libro de segunda mano, lo abre con más cuidado. qué historia puede estar esperando entre sus páginas.

    Show English
    Since then, every time Marta finds a secondhand book, she opens it more carefully. You never know what story might be waiting between its pages.
    Show English translation

    Every Sunday, Marta goes to the flea market that sets up near her house. She loves searching through tables full of old objects: clocks that no longer work, scratched records, and, above all, books. Even though she has a full bookshelf at home, she can never resist buying just one more.

    That morning, while she was flipping through a hardcover novel, something fell to the floor. It was a yellowed envelope, without stamps, with a name written by hand: "For Elena, if you ever need it." Marta bent down, picked it up, and, without thinking too much, opened it.

    Inside was a letter dated 1987, written in small, careful handwriting. Its author, someone named Tomás, explained to Elena that he was moving to another country and that, even though things hadn't turned out as they'd hoped, he would always remember her fondly. At the end, there was an address in Seville.

    Marta sat thinking for several minutes. She didn't know who Elena was, whether she still lived at that address, or even whether she was still alive. But something in Tomás's words moved her deeply. It seemed unfair to her that such a sincere letter had never reached its destination.

    That night, she couldn't stop thinking about the story. She looked up the address online and discovered that, surprisingly, a building with that number still existed. She decided to write a letter of her own, explaining how she had found the envelope and asking whether anyone at that address knew a woman named Elena.

    Three weeks passed without a reply. Marta had almost forgotten about it when, one Tuesday afternoon, she found an envelope in her mailbox. It was from a woman named Carmen, Elena's daughter. Carmen explained that her mother had died five years earlier, but that she remembered perfectly the story of a certain Tomás, a young love her mother used to speak of wistfully from time to time.

    Carmen asked Marta to send her the original letter, and she did. In return, Carmen sent her an old photograph: a young Elena smiling next to a man who could only be Tomás.

    Marta kept the photograph inside the same book where she'd found the letter and placed it carefully in a special spot on her shelf. She liked to think that, after almost forty years, Tomás's words had finally reached their destination — even if not quite the way he had imagined.

    Since then, every time Marta finds a secondhand book, she opens it more carefully. You never know what story might be waiting between its pages.

    Vocabulary in this story

    mercado de segunda mano
    flea market
    rayados
    scratched
    sobre todo
    above all
    resistirse a
    resist (doing something)
    hojeaba
    was flipping through
    tapa dura
    hardcover
    amarillento
    yellowed
    sellos
    stamps
    escrito a mano
    handwritten
    se agachó
    bent down
    fechada
    dated
    letra
    handwriting (not 'letter')
    no habían salido como esperaban
    hadn't turned out as they had hoped
    cariño
    affection
    conmovió
    moved her (emotionally)
    Le pareció injusto que
    It seemed unfair to her that
    no pudo dejar de pensar
    couldn't stop thinking
    sorprendentemente
    surprisingly
    propia
    of her own
    buzón
    mailbox
    hacía cinco años
    five years earlier
    un tal
    a certain / some guy named
    con nostalgia
    wistfully
    de vez en cuando
    from time to time
    enviara
    send (subjunctive after 'pedir que')
    A cambio
    in exchange
    por fin
    finally
    Desde entonces
    Since then
    Nunca se sabe
    You never know
    Comprensión(check what you understood)

    Answer a few quick questions about the story. This is just for you: there's no account or score saved.

    1. ¿Dónde encontró Marta la carta?
    2. ¿Por qué Tomás le escribió la carta a Elena?
    3. ¿Quién respondió a la carta que escribió Marta?