When I Sing, Mountains Dance by Irene Solà

This is an award winning Catalan author and an award winning book, which is a series of short, sometimes very short, interlinked storied with one family at the center of them, but also including the perspective of nature and things within nature as characters of sorts in the book. In saying this, I am struck that there may be a lot about the author's meaning and message that did not come through to me. The underlying or unifying theme is grief, and that does come through clearly. The book is set among the villages, forests and rivers of the Pyrenees, the book builds a layered history of the area while focusing primarily on one family. Domènec leaves his wife, Sió, and two children, Mia and Hilari. The Spanish Civil War is a part of the destruction in the novel as well, but it does not seem to be central. The stories depict the natural world as a complex system of relationships that shapes human lives. Within that system, everything is important, the mushroom as much as the man. When we step back and allow the bigger picture to take shape, we adopt a more expansive view. At least I think that is the advise.