Fiction
Learning to Talk to Plants
by Marta Orriols
Description
“Aprendre a parlar amb les plantes” (Learning to Talk to Plants)
by Marta Orriols – Debut novel (Literary/Upmarket)
Original publisher/language: Ed. del Periscopi (Catalan, 2018)
Rights sold:
Lumen (Spanish), Seuil (French), Ponte alle Grazie (Italian), DTV (German), Hakursa/9Lives (Hebrew), Prometheus (Dutch), Sonia Draga (Polish), Dom Quixote (Portuguese, excl Brazil), Pushkin Press (World English), United Sky (Simplified Chinese), Kastaniotis (Greece).
Paula, the narrator and main character, is 40 years old, she’s a neonatologist and she is alive. But her life-long boyfriend Mauro suddenly died in an accident. In the first pages of the novel, we are astonished by the intensity and the precision with which the narrator tells about losing a partner all of a sudden and how, before the accident, death was something so far away from them.
But after a few pages, when we feel we are reading a very good novel about mourning a loved one, a very unexpected revelation comes to light: Only a few hours before he dies, Mauro tells Paula that he is in love with another woman and that their relationship has come to an end. It is at this point when the novel becomes something new, original, powerful and different.
This unexpected death and the previous revelation leave Paula astonished and completely lost. The reader will witness how she walks a path that will confront her with her feelings of rage, fear, desire, grieve and the need to survive and reconstruct herself.
Deeply moving and surprising, Learning to Talk to Plants is a delicate and intimate novel written from the point of view of a woman who needs to come to terms with a life she can no longer recognize.
More Information
Rights Information
Original publisher: Edicions del Periscopi (Catalan).
Translation rights sold so far: Pushkin Press (WEL), Éditions du Seuil (French), DTV (Germany), Ponte alle Grazie (GeMS Group, Italy), Hakursa/9LivesPress (Israel), Prometheus (Netherlands), Sonia Draga (Poland), Dom Quixote (Portugal), Kastaniotis (Greece), United Sky (simplified Chinese).
Editorial Lumen (PRH Group) has also translated it into Spanish.
Marketing Information
- Big success in Catalan
-11 translation deals so far.
- Author speaks English
- Omnium Award to the Best Catalan Novel of 2018
- Nollegiu Award for Narrative 2018
- QueLlegim Award 2019
Endorsements
Pierre Demarty, in charge of foreign literature at Seuil (France):
“As a male reader, the fact that such a “feminine-oriented” book (both in terms of character and voice) could touch me so much is ample proof that “Learning…” goes way beyond the somewhat artificial divide between male and female readership… In a nutshell, I was impressed by the way Marta Orriols tackles big topics and big ideas (death, of course, and mourning, and love, and secrets, and “treason”, etc.) without ever being sentimental, or sanctimonious. Though dark at heart, her novel is, in many ways, very luminous, both in her crystal-clear prose and in the resilient though painful trajectory of her protagonist.
It is a precious book, both powerful and poised, deeply moving, perfectly balanced, dealing with the most delicate and complex feelings without ever trying to jerk tears from the reader’s eyes, without ever succumbing to easy and caricatural psychology. And, yes, beyond its purely literary merits, I do think “Learning…” has great commercial potential as an upmarket novel: it seems to me it is something for everyone, which has undeniable universal dimension, a story in which, for better and for worse, each and every reader will be able to recognize him or herself."
María Fasce, literary director at Lumen, says about the novel: "With her first novel, Marta Orriols has consolidated herself as one of the most interesting Spanish authors of today. Her literature, overflowing with life and feelings, reminds me of Lucia Berlin and Alice Munro: Orriols also puts a magnifying glass on the movements of the feminine soul and takes us from pain to tenderness, from smile to emotion."
Reviews
"Orriols shows herself to be a master in the psychological deepening of a grieving process, taking both her characters and the reader seriously.” - De Morgen (Netherlands) .
"The debut novel by Marta Orriols is beautiful. Although the subject addressed is heartbreaking. Indeed, the novel is so beautiful precisely because it tackles an extremely painful subject with balance, sensitivity and harmony. Orriols has the ability to tell intimacy and silence, and to show how death is both a universal and unique experience." - Michela Marzano, La Repubblica (Italy)
“The path of the feeling of loss in Learning to Talk to Plants pulsates with painful, intimist authenticity." - Avvenire (Italy)
"Don't let the title fool you, because it's a little gem.” - The Bibliophile Girl (Italy)
"Marta Orriols' novel is a “roller coaster” of emotions, and a manifesto against those who are in a hurry to eradicate sadness.” - Expresso (Portugal)
"Marta Orriols has the ability to fix with words the transience and the unforeseen of everyday circumstances."- Ponç Puigdevall, El País (Spain)
"A novel that conquers for its frankness, for its tenderness, and for the subtlety that Marta Orriols shows by putting words to what normally would leave us speechless.”- Laura Ferrero, ABC (Spain)
“An exceptional writer”- El Periódico (Spain)
"Marta Orriols has been compared to Alice Munro and Margaret Atwood. The comparison is accurate."- Enrique Martín, EITB (Spain)
Author Biography
Marta Orriols (1975) keeps her own blog, collaborates in the literary supplements of various newspapers and magazines and teaches creative writing in Barcelona. In 2016 she publisher her first book, the collection of short stories 'Anatomy of Short Distances.'
SalmaiaLit Literary Agency
Launched in Barcelona in 2008 by Bernat Fiol SalmaiaLit represents world rights of individual authors as well as translation rights of publishers and other literary agencies.
View all titlesBibliographic Information
- Publisher Edicions del Periscopi
- Orginal LanguageCatalan, Spanish
- Publication Country or regionSpain
- ReadershipGeneral
- Publish StatusPublished
- Original Language TitleAprendre a parlar amb les plantes
- Original Language AuthorsCatalan
- Copyright Year2018
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