Author(s): Irene Sola

General Fiction

 When Domenec - mountain-dweller, father, poet, dreamer - dies suddenly, struck by lightning, he leaves behind two small children, Mia and Hilari, to grow up wild among the looming summits of the Pyrenees and the ghosts of the Spanish civil war. But then Hilari dies too, and his sister is forced to face life's struggles and joys alone. As the years tumble by, the inhabitants of the mountain - human, animal and other - come together in a chorus of voices to bear witness to the sorrows of one family, and to the savage beauty of the landscape. This remarkable English-language debut is lyrical, mythical, elemental, and ferociously imaginative. A prize-winning, spell-binding, polyphonic debut of love, wildness and tragedy that marks the generations - for readers of Sarah Baume and Max Porter.

Matilda Bookshop Review

Solà celebrates the interconnectedness of people, animals, history, land, weather, geology and folklore in this lyrical mosaic of voices, set in the Catalan Pyrenees. I was captivated by this linguistically dynamic observation of big and small, of life and death, of ancient mountains and the transitory, kaleidoscopic consciousness of those who inhabit their slopes.

Georgia