A Review By Keith Smith

Some while ago whilst visiting relatives in Barcelona, I asked where to find the best bookshops so that I could compare with my own. We visited a number, but one in particular I remember, it had an an enormous stock but what was absolutely eye-opening was the fact that on the shelves side-by-side were books written in Catalan, Spanish, German, French you name it. So that looking at my own subject of History for example you could find the best of the best by scholars from around the world, not just limited to English-speaking authors with English language editions. Amazing! As if you could find anything at all like that in this country, let alone imagining it would succeeed.

Nor, if we are honest, do we find any real provision of, or demand for, books in translation, apart from maybe mass sellers like say Stieg Larsson . So when a novel by one of the best-selling Catalan authors fell into my hands I was intrigued. Maria Barbal, born the same year as myself, is considered the most influential living Catalan author with great critical acclaim and a wide readership.

This particular book ‘Stone In A Landslide’ is just over 100 pages long, and is written in exceedingly small chapters, so you can easily read it in one sitting. And very well worth it, it is too.

At the beginning of the 20th century 13-year-old Conxa has to leave her home village in the Pyrenees to work for her childless aunt. After years of hard labour, she finds love with Jaume – a love that will be thwarted by the Spanish Civil War. Approaching her own death, Conxa looks back on a life in which she has lost everything except her own indomitable spirit. There are many important themes running through the book – the hardness and repetitiveness of peasant life, the fissure in Spain created by the Civil War, the separateness of Catalonia from the rest of Spain, the huge cultural gap between the mountains and Barcelona, and family relationships, but none over-intrude as it were….we see Conxa’s life in the round.

But it is the writing that is marvellous. Every word has a use, there are no superfluities anywhere, the style is sparse but incredibly descriptive and meaningful. It is a sheer joy to read. I wonder what if anything has been lost in translation. It would be great to read it in the original, but let us be thankful for a wonderful translation. It has opened my eyes. I would like to read a lot more foreign literature, but it will have to be in retirement!