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Dams: A Novel
Not yet published
Expected 3 Nov 26The playful, metafictional first novel by the acclaimed author of I Gave You Eyes and You Looked Toward Darkness
This is Ada, back in her village after studying abroad in London, once again driving around with Vicenç Jr. and coming home giddy late in the summer night. These are Ada’s fingers in the morning, charging across the computer keys, capturing and inventing stories, like the story of Vicenç Sr., the farmer who lost two fingers in a combine and loves to dance, and the story of Josefa Puig who was attacked by a cow, the story of the cow obsessed with seeing the stone that gleams in the darkness inside every creature, the story of Ada’s earrings after Vicenç Jr. angrily tossed them into the Sau Reservoir where they were swallowed by an enormous catfish, the story of the old catfish with gold in its belly who was eventually hauled out of the lake by some eager then regretful boys, and the story of the dams that could not hold in the end and the water that rushed through the veins, that mercilessly and ecstatically flooded the heart.
Alternating between the story of Ada and Ada’s stories, Irene Solà’s debut novel is a brilliant and heady ode to life in community, impossible and enduring love, and the wellspring of the imagination that fills everything it touches with magic.
This is Ada, back in her village after studying abroad in London, once again driving around with Vicenç Jr. and coming home giddy late in the summer night. These are Ada’s fingers in the morning, charging across the computer keys, capturing and inventing stories, like the story of Vicenç Sr., the farmer who lost two fingers in a combine and loves to dance, and the story of Josefa Puig who was attacked by a cow, the story of the cow obsessed with seeing the stone that gleams in the darkness inside every creature, the story of Ada’s earrings after Vicenç Jr. angrily tossed them into the Sau Reservoir where they were swallowed by an enormous catfish, the story of the old catfish with gold in its belly who was eventually hauled out of the lake by some eager then regretful boys, and the story of the dams that could not hold in the end and the water that rushed through the veins, that mercilessly and ecstatically flooded the heart.
Alternating between the story of Ada and Ada’s stories, Irene Solà’s debut novel is a brilliant and heady ode to life in community, impossible and enduring love, and the wellspring of the imagination that fills everything it touches with magic.
192 pages, Paperback
Expected publication November 3, 2026
5 people want to read
About the author
Irene Solà
19 books1,684 followersIrene Solà is a Spanish writer and an artist. She has exhibited her work at the CCCB in Barcelona and the Whitechapel Gallery in London. Her first book of poems Bèstia won the 2012 Amadeu Oller Prize and Dikes novel, the 2017 Documenta Prize.
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Want to read
January 23, 2026This is me, discovering with utmost delight that Irene Solà's debut novel has been translated to English. These are my fingers, typing rapidly to share that I can't wait to read this book! This is my debit card, swooping in to secure a pre-ordered copy. Here is my imagination, conjuring an old catfish with gold in its belly because such things can be found in Solà's work and I can't wait to encounter them on the page.
Displaying 1 of 1 review