When I Sing, Mountains Dance

One of the most inventive novels I’ve read in recent years, this beautiful Pyrenean patchwork is supposed to evoke the orchestra of voices of the mountain region in which the book takes place.

Thus, you have the points of view of local farmers and their families, but also of the mountains themselves, of storm clouds and baskets of mushrooms and plenty of animals, wild and domesticated. The Deer takes us on a delightful tangent, but the most memorable chapter might be the one from the point of view of the spirited, breathlessly energetic dog.

This year I travelled through northern Spain crossing through the Pyrenees to France and back by train.

I always like to read about the area I’m travelling through and so much better when these are stories by local authors. Irene Solà is a Catalan writer, artist, and award-winning poet and this collection of interlinked short stories combines nature writing, magical realism, and literary fiction into a distinctive and innovative work of imagination unlike anything I’ve ever read before.

I particularly admire writers who try to capture the non-human and non-living voices in the landscape and I love the way Sola… show more.