The Earth Takes It Away | They Haven't Given Birth Yet

Quimeta is the mother of Francesc, Neus, and Daniel Bastida. Her husband died in prison despite being innocent, and she supports the family through black-market trading in the darkest corners of post-war Barcelona. At forty-four years old, active and full of vitality, she suffers an aneurysm that shakes the entire family.

From that moment on, two possible destinies unfold: depending on how she recovers from this ordeal, her children's lives will follow very different paths. In both versions of the story, the women take on the leading role that others sought to deny them. Meanwhile, Barcelona is a city shaped by survival, complicity, and the privileges of the regime. And sometimes, life prevails.

These two novels in one volume continue the cycle of novels that the Catalan writer, Manuel de Pedrolo, left unfinished: “Can you imagine a group of writers, from successive generations, joining forces to carry this book forward? A crazy idea, perhaps. But maybe the only things truly worth doing are those that go beyond the ordinary, beyond the expected...” Cadenes embraced the challenge.