The Guardian includes Catalan book ‘When I Sing, Mountains Dance’ among 2022’s best fiction

British newspaper The Guardian included ‘When I Sing, Mountains Dance’ by Catalan author Irene Solà, which was translated into English earlier this year, in its list of best fiction books of 2022.

“Set in the Pyrenees and giving voice to everything from mountains to storms, mushrooms to dogs, English-language debut 'When I Sing, Mountains Dance' is a playful, polyphonic triumph,” Justine Jordan wrote for The Guardian in its end-of-year list.

The novel came out in Catalan in 2019 under the name ‘Canto jo i la muntanya balla’ and has been translated into over 20 languages due to its success. The English version was published by Granta earlier this year with a translation by Mara Faye Lethem.

In a previous review of the book in March of this year, The Guardian's Christopher Shrimpton said that “this attentive, playful, responsive novel makes an excellent case for stopping and listening. Even to the mushrooms.”

The book focuses on the history of an area in the Pyrenees with humans, animals, vegetables and minerals telling the tale from different perspectives, while primarily focusing on one family.

“There are numerous memorable moments of deeply felt contact – with the landscape, with animals, or between people,” Shrimpton continues in the same review.

‘When I Sing, Mountains Dance’ is the third book by Irene Solà after her 2012 poetry collection and her first novel ‘Els Dics’ in 2018. Her latest work received several prizes including the Núvol Prize and the Cálamo Prize in 2019. 

The 32-year-old writer, who originally studied fine arts at the University of Barcelona, was also awarded the European Union Literature Prize for emerging authors in 2020.

Other names in The Guardian’s list include internationally praised writers such as Ian McEwan and Ali Smith. The New York Public Library has also praised Sola's work, naming it one of the best new fiction books for adults.