The Catalan language has suffered various upheavals in the last century, from the political oppression of the 1920s, to the active attempts to suppress the language during the Franco dictatorship. Yet five decades on the canon of Catalan writing is flourishing. This year Eva Baltasar’s Boulder, translated by Julia Sanches, became the first Catalan book to be shortlisted for the International Booker Prize, after Irene Solà’s novel When I Sing, Mountains Dance won the 2020 EU Prize and Mercè Rodoreda’s classic Death in Spring launched Viking’s European series. The growing international interest in Catalan literature speaks to the value of its language and culture.
Over a period of months, Granta has worked alongside the Institut Ramon Llull to assemble a selection of some of the most exciting Catalan writing emerging today, all of which appear here in English for the first time. We are pleased to introduce new poetry by Dolors Miquel; an excerpt from Irene Solà’s forthcoming novel, Dams; a first translation of Montserrat Roig’s 1976 classic The Time of Cherries; eidetic fiction by Raül Garrigasait; new fiction from Marta Orriols; and conversations between Catalan translators Julia Sanches and Mara Faye Lethem, as well as with Catalan authors Eva Baltasar and Irene Solà.
The Pink Plastic Glove
Dolors Miquel
‘A pink plastic glove arrives, I say hello, pink plastic glove, you’ve arrived.’
Poetry by Dolors Miquel, translated by Peter Bush.
There Was a Farmer Had a Dog
Irene Solà
‘A twenty-five-kilo dog is too small to survive in the countryside.’
An extract from Irene Solà’s forthcoming novel, translated by Mara Faye Lethem.
A Simple Blueprint
Marta Orriols
‘We master cartography, yet despite everything, we go back and forth often in our lives, directionless.’
Fiction by Marta Orriols, translated by Samantha Mateo.
The Tupperware Party
Montserrat Roig
‘We’re going to go crazy today, Merche exclaimed and then let out an electric shriek.’
Fiction by Montserrat Roig, translated by Julia Sanches.
In Conversation
Julia Sanches & Mara Faye Lethem
‘There are times when I think I came to literary translation just so I could keep my many homes close to hand.’
Julia Sanches and Mara Faye Lethem on translating Catalan into English.
Prophecy
Raül Garrigasait
‘They both had their heads almost inside the carcass, which gave off a whiff of life and of death.’
Fiction by Raül Garrigasait, translated by Mara Faye Lethem.
