When I Sing, Mountains Dance- Irene Solà

Overall Rating: 9.3/10 

The book is essentially about the people and the nature and those animals/beings in it in the Pyrénées mountain range. The story starts off with the death of Domènec, who dies due to a lightning bolt in the head, leaving behind his wife Sío, who goes mad after his death, and his two children Hilari, a newborn, and Mia. It’s written from the POVs of different ‘people’ each chapter, some actual humans, others animals (the roe deer) or plants (the chanterelle mushrooms) or the cloud in the sky or even the mountain range itself (accompanied with simple diagrams depicting its formation), to name a few. 

My favorite is the one from the republican girl Eva, who’s a victim of the Spanish Civil War and her POV is a mix of during her life and during her death where she interacts with the ghosts of Hilari (the son of the man, Domènec, struck dead by lightning) and Domènec himself. Hilari dies in a hunting accident at the hands of his close friend Jaume, Mia’s boyfriend at the time. Who is then incarcerated and flees to a neighbouring region, in fear of having to see Mia again after murdering her brother. 

Other characters include the four witches (the nameless women), the family of Agusti, Neus, Cristina (who’s lesbian (yay!)) and Carla. There’s also Oriol and his mother, Oriol, and his then girlfriend, had previously been victim to a burglary gone wrong, where he was shot in the head, leaving him without an eye and a limp. He strikes up a romance with Mia later on when she’s around 50. 

The story is beautiful and so unique as it’s told from the perspectives of non- traditional characters. Never before have I wondered what a mushroom might be thinking (if it were able to think), nor have I wondered what animals like the dears or a bear may think of us like “…their paws, which were hairless and had lots of branches”. It’s a truly wonderful book and I implore anyone to read it, even if you don't tend to read short story anthologies I promise this is worth it. If not, it's only 120 pages are so anyways so no harm done.