“When I Sing, Mountains Dance” is a multi-layered novel about life in the Pyrenees, focused on the family of Domènec, Sió and their children. The story is told from various perspectives – including women, men, children, deer, dogs, mountains, mushrooms, and more. It combines elements of family history with mythology and folklore.
“Easy Reading” is a contemporary novel that centres on four women with ‘intellectual disabilities’ who share a state-subsidised flat in Barcelona. The story describes their daily lives, focusing on their economic, emotional, and legal challenges and their struggle to maintain freedom from social and state control.
In Fernando Aramburu’s novel “Homeland”, Bittori returns to her former village in the Basque Country to uncover the truth about her husband’s murder by ETA. She is determined to identify the killers and to confront those who turned a blind eye when her husband was threatened for not paying ‘taxes’ to ETA. Her return causes unrest in the village, in particular for Miren, who was once Bittori’s neighbour and best friend, and whose son is imprisoned for his involvement with ETA.
When Manuel travels to Galicia to visit the site where his husband Álvaro died in a car crash, he discovers that Álvaro had been living a double life. Driven by the need to know the truth, Manuel starts investigating his husband’s past and unravels a tangled web of deception and corruption.
María, a literary editor, observes a loving couple every morning from a distance at the Madrid café where she has breakfast. One day, the couple suddenly disappears, and María learns that the man, Miguel, has been murdered. She discovers that Manuel’s best friend, Javier, is secretly in love with Luisa, the widow, and is patiently waiting for her to overcome her grief. Could Javier have had anything to do with the murder?
An English art historian travels to Madrid in 1936 to study a Spanish duke’s collection of paintings. His visit takes an intriguing turn when the duke’s beautiful daughter reveals a secret Velázquez painting to him. However, the Englishman soon finds himself entangled in a web of political intrigue, with the Spanish authorities closely monitoring his every move.
“The Anatomy of a Moment” by Javier Cercas is a fictionalised account of the 1981 Spanish coup d’état led by Colonel Tejero and the Generals Armada and Milans del Bosch. The moment referred to in the title is when Tejero stormed the Spanish Congress of Deputies, ordering all politicians to get down while the Guardia Civil fired several gunshots. Only three politicians defied the order and remained seated: Prime Minister Adolfo Súarez, Deputy Prime Minister Gutiérez Mellado, and Communist leader Santiago Carrillo.
“The Last Patriarch” by Najat El Hachmi tells the story of a Moroccan immigrant in Spain (Catalonia) who struggles to adapt to his new country and its Western culture. The man has a violent temperament and imposes his traditional values on his entire family, except himself. This causes conflicts with his free-spirited daughter, who is more integrated into Spanish – Catalan society.
A powerful female banker, both loved and hated by people across the globe, embarks on a journey through the Sierra de Gredos mountains in central Spain to meet the author who is to write her biography. Along the way, she makes five stops, encountering fellow travellers at each stop. These stops symbolise different stages of her life and reflect the state of the world at large.
“Soldiers of Salamis” is a fictionalised historical account of how Rafael Sánchez Mazas, a Spanish writer and far-right nationalist leader, escaped a Republican firing squad at the end of the Spanish Civil War. The novel centres on the quest to identify the Republican soldier who discovered Sánchez Mazas when he was on the run and chose to spare his life instead of killing him.