Barren

The Parador de Sau Hotel, on December 24th, is the unlikely setting for the chance encounter between Ramona and Faust, the protagonists of this novel filled with fog and deserts, unfolding against the backdrop of drought. She has arrived to spend two nights there alone. He is hosting a lunch with colleagues from a job he performs with obsessive zeal, despite detesting it; he is the head of the Sau dam. Ramona and Faust are so different that they almost resemble each other; perhaps that is why they feel a curiosity—unprompted by love or sex—that will push them toward unknown territories.

Who truly lives the life they would like to live? How can we escape inertia in our relationship with work, our partner, our surroundings, our family, ourselves? Why is it so easy for us to deceive ourselves and yet so hard to rid ourselves of obsessive thoughts? And above all, how are illusions invented?

With an alchemical blend of fury and tenderness, Carlota Gurt offers us two memorable characters who gradually take shape in a hall of mirrors between real and imagined lives. Written in a lively prose, lit by flashes of critique and humor, Els erms celebrates the power of fabulation to propel not only a story, but also our wild joy.

A celebration of the power of storytelling to drive not only a narrative, but also our wild joy.