Book Synopsis:
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.
My Review:
When I sing, Mountains Dance is a beautiful, lyrical and absorbing read that is unlike anything I’ve read before.
The book tells the story of life on a mountain in Spain told through a huge variety of characters. We hear from everyone who lives on the mountains from living people, animals, plants and even some of the ghosts that haunt the mountainside. I found this very interesting, especially as it was fascinating to see how everyone fits together and how one event can have such an affect on everyone on the mountain.
I enjoyed learning more about the characters and what it was like living in such a remote location. It was lovely to see how close knit the community was with everyone seeming to know and care for each other. I especially like finding out how they had adapted to life on the mountain and how the few shops that existed there sold everything they could possibly want in one place.
Overall I did enjoy this book and felt sad to leave the wonderful mountain community behind. It’s not a fast paced book but instead is one to savour and enjoy the subtle nuances of the story. It has definitely made me think more about nature and how human activity can affect it. The inclusion of ghosts or folk lore was very intriguing and helped give the book a magical feel to it. It’s a book that will stay with me and I’m very glad that one of my colleagues at the bookshop recommended it to me.
About The Author:
Irene Solà is a Catalan writer and artist, winner of the European Union Prize for Literature, the Documenta Prize for first novels, the Llibres Anagrama Prize, and the Amadeu Oller Poetry Prize. Her artwork has been exhibited in the Whitechapel Gallery.
Over The Rainbow Blog 
I took this novel with me on a visit to the region and while I didn’t get to read it much while I was there, it gave me a much greater appreciation for the complexities of Catalonia culture and the diversity of that polyphonic chorus of voices, animal, vegetal, mineral, human, non human of the present and the past.
Quite an extraordinary achievement indeed.
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Yes it’s a fantastic book hey! Glad you enjoyed it too x
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