Gabriele est une actrice qui, à la fin de sa carrière, entreprend un voyage dans la ville où elle a passé son adolescence. Sa visite soudaine prend au dépourvu deux de ses amies, qui voient en elle une manière d'échapper à leurs journées grises et monotones. L'actrice pourra deviner, à travers elles, la vie qu'elle aurait pu avoir. Le poids de la célébrité la poursuit depuis quarante ans et une seule chose semble évidente : ce voyage réveille de vieilles passions et modifie les vies de tous ceux à qui elle rend visite.
"Ce que Núria Añó nous présente dans son livre, c'est un morceau de vie réelle, disséqué au fin bistouri de son écriture. Il y a dans son œuvre un grand travail sur le langage et le style. Ce n'est pas un roman facile, ni par son sujet, ni par son style, mais il revêt un grand intérêt et représente, selon moi, l'une des grandes promesses en matière de roman catalan contemporain"- Dr. Àngels Santa, revue L'Ull crític, 15-16.
Núria Añó is a Catalan/Spanish writer, a translator, and a regular speaker at conferences and symposia, where she gives papers on literary creation, films, cities, or authors like Elfriede Jelinek, Patricia Highsmith, Salka Viertel, Karen Blixen, Alexandre Dumas or Franz Werfel.
Her novel "Els nens de l'Elisa" was third among the finalists for the 24th Ramon Llull Prize for Catalan Literature and was published in 2006. "L'escriptora morta" [The Dead Writer, 2020], in 2008; "Núvols baixos" [Lowering Clouds, 2020], in 2009, and "La mirada del fill", in 2012. Her most recent work "El salón de los artistas exiliados en California" [The Salon of Exiled Artists in California, 2020] is a biography of scriptwriter Salka Viertel, a Jewish salonnière and well-known in Hollywood in the thirties as a specialist on Greta Garbo scripts.
Some of her novels, short stories, and articles have been translated into Spanish, French, English, Italian, German, Polish, Chinese, Latvian, Portuguese, Dutch, and Greek.
Her writing focuses on the characters' psychology, generally antiheroes. The characters are the most important in her books, much more than the topic, due to "an introspection, a reflection, not sentimental, but feminine". Her novels cover a multitude of topics, treat actual and socially relevant problems such as injustices or poor communication between people, and frequently, the core of her stories remains unexplained. Añó asks the reader to discover the "deeper meaning" and to become involved in the events presented.
Literary Prizes/ Awards:
2019. Awarded at International Writer's and Translators' House in Latvia. 2018. Fourth prize of the 5th Shanghai Get-together Writing Contest. 2018. Selected for a literary residence in Krakow UNESCO City of Literature, Poland. 2017. Awarded at the International Writers' and Translators' Center of Rhodes in Greece. 2017. Awarded at the Baltic Centre for Writers and Translators in Sweden. 2016. Awarded at the Shanghai Writing Program, hosted by the Shanghai Writer's Association. 2016. Awarded by the Culture Association Nuoren Voiman Liitto to be a resident at Villa Sarkia in Finland. 2004. Third among the finalists for the 24th Ramon Llull Prize for Catalan Literature. 1997. Finalist for the 8th Mercè Rodoreda Prize for Catalan Short Stories. 1996. Awarded the 18th City of Almenara Joan Fuster Prize for Fiction.
La scrittrice si sofferma esclusivamente sulla descrizione psicologia dei vari personaggi. Non c'è nessuna storia sottostante, gli intrecci risultano essere incoerenti ed inconsistenti.