Somewhere in the Catalan mountains, an old woman is lying on her deathbed. She is surrounded by all female siblings, both alive and dead. Throughout her predicament, stories bubble up in an associative and irrational sequence, as if inspired by the thought or fantasy of the moment. One of the women, Joanna, once made a pact with the devil in the hope of finding a husband. As a consequence, they now live in a demon-haunted world, not by their immediate appearance, but more by the curse that's been laid on them, resulting in many babies born with minor deficiencies.
Solà invokes a world we no longer know, of irrationality, superstition, the inevitability of living close together with your kin, as protection against the hostile external world. Her writing is vivid, rich and passionate, but it is not my thing: potentially anything could happen in her world that is totally devoid of logic or normal human interaction.
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