Antonio Muñoz Molina’s latest beautifully wrought novel, A Manuscript of Ashes, is set in Franco-era Spain and tells the story of a young university student, Minaya, who retreats to his uncle Manuel’s mansion in the countryside to write a thesis on a neglected poet the old man once knew. As the plot progresses, Minaya uncovers a startling truth about the relationship between the men, and the story darkens into a meta-mystery. Molina writes in big, fat paragraphs and the kind of lush sentences that can bear the scrutiny usually reserved for poems. He’s certain to keep the gaggle of critics already in love with him deeply enamored.