By Megan Thomas
I attended an event with author Irene Solà at the Edinburgh International Book Festival in 2022 because I had read Lucie Elven’s novella, The Weak Spot, who she was being interviewed alongside. It was a beautiful pairing and I was very quick to buy Solà’s novel immediately after the event – which she “signed” (see image below).
I proceeded to not read it until my latest trip to Italy, now photographed on the sun-baked bricks, which was inspired after I attended the Nota Bene Prize ceremony with nb magazine and Solà only went and won it. If that wasn’t the universe telling me to get a move on, I don’t know what is.
The writing is feverish and abstract, which made it the perfect holiday read as I allowed myself to be swallowed up by its slightly weird, totally captivating prose. Each chapter follows on from the previous, and before you tell me that’s the point of chapters, let me clarify: We start by reading from the point of view of the thunder, which strikes a man on the hillside. Next, we experience it from the man’s perspective. Thereafter, his wife’s. Her children. Their lovers. And so it goes, with us totally absorbing the highs and lows of these interconnected lives in the isolated summits of the Pyrenees.
My only regret is that I can’t read in Spanish – when Solà read an extract in its original language, I felt swept up by the musicality of it which really complements the folklore element of the novel… even though I didn’t have a clue what she was saying. Obviously, I am extremely grateful for Mara Faye Lethem’s amazing translation.
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One response to “ When I Sing, Mountains Dance”
Loved reading When I Sing Mountains Dance, how wonderful to listen to the author read from the novel.
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