This is the second in the Female Voices: Inner Realities series from Peirene Press.
Publisher, Mieke Ziervogel introduces each of their books with one or two sentences in extra-large font on the second page and it’s a page that you find yourself looking forward to whenever you pick up one of their books.
She shares what attracted the team to selecting that title as one of the Peirene books to translate into English and share with readers.
For Stone in a Landslide, she had this to say:
“I fell in love with Conxa’s narrative voice, its stoic calmness and the complete lack of anger and bitterness. It’s a timeless voice, down to earth and full of human contradictory nuances. It’s the expression of someone who searches for understanding in a changing world but senses that ultimately there may be no such thing.”
We meet Conxa as a 13-year-old girl living in the Catalan Pyrenees, Spain at the beginning of the last century, though she narrates the story from the other end of her life, reflecting back on her journey as an old woman.
One of six children, the opening lines tell us how she came to live with her childless aunt and uncle, leaving her family, home, village and mountain behind at such a tender age.
“Anyone could see that there were a lot of us at home. Someone had to go. I was the fifth of six children – Mother used to say I was there because God had wanted me to be there and you have to take what He sends you. The eldest was Maria, she, more than Mother, ran the house. Josep was the son and heir and Joan was going into the church. We three youngest were told a hundred times that we were more of a burden than a blessing….So it was decided that I, who was level-headed and even-tempered, would be sent to help my mother’s sister, Tia.”
She remembers going to school and how fortunate she was to be able to, on account of having older sisters who stayed home to do the work. Three winters she went to school, until she joined the family of her aunt and uncle and then had to help them with the outdoor work.
In short chapters of around two pages, we observe the change in Conxa’s life, her new duties, how people perceive her initially as an outsider and how that perception begins to change, she has become an heir to land thus her marriage prospects have increased. She suffers silently from being separated from her family, but in time accepts her new role and life.
“Time passed and no one spoke of home. Of my family. In five years I had seen Mother and Maria only once, when they came for the Festa Major during my first year at Pallarès….My aunt and uncle said nothing about going back and I didn’t dare mention it. Was I happy there? I had no idea. I’d lived with my heart in my mouth a bit, worried about what they might throw back in my face. Maybe the poverty of my family…But I’d got used to them and their way of doing things. And it’s true, the thought of leaving Pallarès to return to Ermita became stranger every day.”
We learn through Conxa’s experiences how people were perceived, eldest sons were destined to be the heir, a second son may have had to learn a trade and were therefore seen as lesser prospects. Ownership of land accrued status, men who earned a wage were less desirable.
“They knew him to be hard-working and quick-witted but, because of the nature of his work, he appeared to be a drifter and freer than most men, who only looked at the ground to work it or the sky to figure out what the weather will bring. I realised that they saw him as an outsider, someone who’d managed to earn himself a living, but this had more or less divided him from his family.”
Falling in love with a tradesman is about as rebellious as Conxa gets, her aunt and uncle soon realise that Jaume is a good match, and as with her life as the adopted daughter Conxa becomes as accepting of her new circumstances in her life with Jaume, who must by necessity travel a lot for his work. He is more outspoken and for this Conxa will experience hardship as the Spanish Civil War impacts even the quietest villages.
Stone in a Landslide is such an apt metaphor for Conxa and yet she was not like the others. She doesn’t complain, she loves genuinely, she accepts her circumstances and only at the end when she is physically removed from her natural surrounding does she come close to realising how much a part of that landscape she is as a person. She coped with many changes, from daughter to adopted daughter, lover, mother within her natural environment, but the final move puts her somewhere beyond reach, beyond comprehension of how to be who she really is.
“Perhaps I had turned into a living stone, or it was just that I had never known how to rebel…. I felt that I was going to need to be strong, but I had no idea why.”
Another excellent addition to the collection and discovery of another wonderful writer.
Maria Barbal, born in 1949, is considered the most influential living Catalan author. The clarity with which she presents human relations and the passage of time has earned her critical acclaim and a wide readership. She lives in Barcelona.
Next Up: Portrait of the Mother as a Young Woman by Friedrich Christian Deluis.
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It sounds very interesting, Claire. Thanks again for sharing.
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Thanks Naomi, its a quiet, lingering read and an author I’d like to read more of. I hope you come across it too. A little bit of Catalan.
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This is my favourite Peirene book something about Conxa and her world caught like a fly in amber now gone I would imagine a time when a journey of a few miles could seem like a different world
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It’s thanks to your suggestion to revisit the Female Voices series Stu that I bought these three and decided to read them. I joined Peirene at Number 10, so I have a few back issues to read. BUt the 2015 Chance Encounter series sounds promising too! Have you reread this one yet?
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Everyone seems to be reading these Peirene books -but me 🙂 I must say I do like the sound of this one ( and several others).
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I think you’d enjoy the first series, I had to go back as my subscription started at number 10, but who could resist a series named Female Voices: Inner Realities. The next one is interesting particularly as it is written by a man.
This years series looks great too – the theme is Chance Encounters.
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Claire,Thank you for introducing us to this writer. Stone in a landslide sounds like the kind of story that interests me. I also liked to read why the publisher picked this story. I appreciate this kind of complexity when I read literature. The kind of complexity that is not afraid of showing conflicts that have no visible solution.
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Thanks Julia, I wanted to include Mieke’s words as they are part of the enticement for me too, she has such an apt way of articulating exactly that thing that resonates in these book gems.
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I had to buy this straight away, it sounds so good! Also looking forward to your next review, which has been on my wishlist for a while.
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That’s what I love to hear! I am sure you will enjoy it and thanks for the push to write up the next review 🙂 Too busy reading!
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Have added this to list to buy. It sounds great. I read several Spanish lit books last year and thought one of the common characteristics was this strong connection to the landscape and the way the Civil War permeates into most of them to at least some degree. As an aside, I bought the Laline Paul book you’d recommended yesterday and am looking forward to it later this month.
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I am sure you will enjoy it Col and thanks to your recommendation, I have an old library copy of The Yellow Rain by Julio Llamazares next to me, which I will be reading very soon, also set in one of those villages high in the Spanish Pyrenees. I think it may make an interesting companion to Stone in a Landslide.
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I missed out of these early Peirene titles too but can imagine how interesting it must be to read the series together. The quotes and your commentary give a real sense of the stoic calmness in Conxa’s voice. Beautiful review.
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Thanks Jacqui, yes it was a treat to read them one after the other and in the order they were planned, I hope you get to read them all eventually too. This years crop looks great, I just love what they bring to us, without having to do any of the hard work in finding these gems and there must be an abundance of similarly great novellas still to find!
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This is my favourite Peirene too. So gentle and thoughtful.
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It certainly made me want to read more from this author, such a gentle and accepting reflection on life.
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Beautiful review, Claire! Loved it! I don’t think I have ever read a Catalan book before. I am worried about what happened to the heroine in the end – how she had to encounter a change which she couldn’t handle. I can’t wait to find out. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I love this series by Peirene press.
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I do hope you climb on the Peirene wagon Vishy, you’ll be in for a regular treat if you do and you’ll have to make sure you get this series as well. I think its the only Catalan book I’ve read too, though I have another here to read that is also set in the Spanish Pyrenees, this time its an old man reflecting on life and solitude. Watch this space!
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Well, I loved your review of the book in which the old man reflects on life and solitude in the Spanish Pyrenees 🙂
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Claire where do you find all of these interesting books? This one really sounds insightful and Barbal sounds like a passionate writer. Thanks for this beautifully written post and for lengthening my TBR with another meaningful book. 🙂
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If you’re interested in reading contemporary European novellas Deidre, you subscribe to Peirene Press, they put out 3 novellas a year and are like a literary club, they organise events in London, which must be on the bucket list to do one day and they take the hard work out of finding amazing literary gems from outside the English speaking world. When I subscribed they were already up to book number 10 so I decided this year to read the 3 books they first published 5 years ago, the Female Voices series. This one really is a gem and I see a few people saying it is their favourite of all the Peirene books. I still have two more to read and can’t wait for the next to arrive, its like Christmas 3 times a year!
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