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#12DaysofChristmas #12booksof2023

My May choice is one from the #Booker longlist. In only 105 pages Eva Baltasar writes about love in a way that‘ll stick with me for a long time time.

This is a beautifully written book about one woman's life in Barcelona during the Spanish Civil War, though it is quite slow paced at the beginning.

My daughter found this #VMC edition for me last year, and I'm glad I finished it before my upcoming trip to Barcelona. I hope I'll have time to visit the Plaça del Diamant, where the book is set.

This was a “meh” for me. I appreciated the complicated & richly emotional context of the MC‘s failing relationship. But, it didn‘t speak to me. I‘m only likely to remember this novella for the final nursing scene. 😜

#InternationalBooker list, though I don‘t typically read those titles, I am amazed at this slim character study!! Boulder is a woman who is more comfortable at sea, physically exhausted than contained in domesticity. She falls in love which changes her whole world. Then motherhood hits and everything changes. The way new motherhood is described from the non-birthing partner‘s perspective is phenomenal.

What a unique character. And yet, who knows just how unique Boulder really is. How many women feel the same way she does but don‘t feel they can share their desire of being unattached. Especially her feelings toward motherhood and being isolated from the person you love and are so close to, abandoned because a child has entered the scene. Some lovely writing too.

A wonderful magical realist novel set in the #Catalan Pyrenees, near the French border. Poetry, multiple voices, ghosts, nature, history 😍

I was exploring the area described in the book in Google Maps, and found a place called Can Solà (House Solà - Solà being the writer's surname). The picture is a screenshot of GM's streetview.

A night all by myself, at a bar in the city I grew up in. Feeling nostalgic and blown away by this book.
In only 105 pages Eva Baltasar writes about love in a way that resonates with me. Love for another woman, love for a child, love for ordinary things like cooking food and working and traveling.
This may sound sappy but the book isn‘t. On the contrary, it‘s dark and beautiful.

My favorite of the #internationalbooker shortlist so far.

“This wasn‘t a part of our plan. The truth is we‘d never made any plans, we‘d just taken huge bites out of life.” 🤍

My love for this slim debut novel is all about the sentences; Eva Baltasar is a poet and you know it. Her lesbian protagonist cannot emotionally connect with other people but she certainly has a lot of sex… in between thinking about ways to kill herself. The narrative arc is very satisfying & I plan to read Baltasar‘s International Booker shortlisted 2nd novel soon. #Translation from Catalan by Julia Sanches. #LGBTQ