When Words Fall into Oblivion

Original Title: Quan s'esborren les paraules

Publication: 2021

Author: Rafel Nadal

«My mother was looking out the window, but I couldn’t say what she was looking at. She sat there, day after day, in the sitting room of our family home on Santa Llúcia square in Girona, in a wing chair, hands clasped in her lap, head slighting hanging to the right, lips sealed, glassy-eyed, looking out at who knows what, over the patio and the clock tower at Sant Pere. She was in good health and seemed to be in good shape; as in good shape as anybody at 98 who spends the whole day in a sitting chair and wheel chair can be. Everything seemed to be like before, like always, but nothing was the same anymore. Words had fallen into oblivion. Every single one. The entire dictionary.»

In this intimate and delicate book, ten years after the publication of When we were Happy, Rafel Nadal focuses once more on memory, the passage of time, and new young generations. A book that closes the #1 bestselling family saga in Catalan literature.

When Words Fall into Oblivion, things lose their name and slowly fade; what is left for the author is to write these words about Grandmother Montserrat, hoping that every time somebody reads them, the stories and characters they tell will come back to life. This is a story that doesn’t shy away from revealing a certain nostalgia for a time that comes to its end, but it is also a story that fills a new beginning with hope and tenderness.

A highly emotional read that will stay in the minds of readers.

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Original Language

CATALAN | Columna

Translation Rights

SPANISH | Destino

Reviews

"Rafel Nadal had possibly not written anything better yet, although we could hint it coming in his previous books." Julià Guillamon, Cultura|s, La Vanguardia

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