Three characters in crisis seek out an elusive happiness in this novel that is filled with emotion, and takes an ironic and critical view of our contemporary world.
Mai, Helena and Santos all live in the same building in the Raval neighborhood of Barcelona, a neighborhood where extremes – people, money, cultures – exist in close proximity. These three characters are of different generations, but they are each undergoing a personal crisis.
Twenty-something Mai is a progressive young woman who ekes out a living with precarious jobs and is weighed down by the burden of a family drama. Helena is forty years old and in a more conventional and stable situation (married with children, two good salaries), yet watches as the life she’s built crumbles around her. Santos is an idealistic rock musician whose career slump has led him to a life on the margins of society, growing marijuana.
The three vulnerable neighbors unite to find a way out of their respective plights; they judge the world lucidly and find that they are dissatisfied with both the city’s accelerated pace and the people in their lives.
A critical view of the world in which we live, written with nerve and irony.
A contemporary urban novel about ordinary lives in crisis.
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