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Cicle del Pallars #1
Pedra de tartera
«Em sento com una pedra amuntegada en una tartera. Si algú o alguna cosa encerta a moure-la, cauré amb les altres rodolant cap avall; si res no s'atansa, m'estaré quieta aquí dies i dies...».
La Conxa es veu així quan empresonen el seu marit al final de la Guerra Civil. D'adolescent, ella va haver de deixar la família en un poble del Pallars per viure amb la de la seva tia i, d'aquesta manera, ajudar-la en una altra població de la mateixa comarca. Allà va conèixer en Jaume, paleta i fuster d'un poble veí, de qui es va enamorar, i s'hi va casar. Per raó de la Història, a la protagonista li cal aprendre de la resistència pacífica dels minerals.
La Conxa es veu així quan empresonen el seu marit al final de la Guerra Civil. D'adolescent, ella va haver de deixar la família en un poble del Pallars per viure amb la de la seva tia i, d'aquesta manera, ajudar-la en una altra població de la mateixa comarca. Allà va conèixer en Jaume, paleta i fuster d'un poble veí, de qui es va enamorar, i s'hi va casar. Per raó de la Història, a la protagonista li cal aprendre de la resistència pacífica dels minerals.
123 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1985
24 people are currently reading
829 people want to read
About the author
Maria Barbal
47 books31 followersMaria Barbal is a Catalan writer. Even though she has lived in Barcelona from the 1960s onward, the literary world of her early work as an author concentrates on the Pallars county of her childhood and adolescence, a rural surrounding observed by a critical eye. Her first novel, Pedra de tartera [‘Stone from a boulder’], fully set in that space, was praised by the public and critics alike. Her first novel has been translated into English as Stone in a Landslide
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 178 reviews
December 22, 2014
Though short in pages, the content is large in meaning. A Catalan peasant woman's life in the early 1900's, a life of hard work, sorrow but many joys, until the Spanish uprising. There will be a before and a after and has one of the most poignant expressions of grief for the death of a loved one that I have ever read.
The story is told simply, words are used to their best effect, and some of the sentences are just beautiful. Also wonderful descriptions of what a life's memory contains and how terrible that is to loose.
Profound and memorable.
The story is told simply, words are used to their best effect, and some of the sentences are just beautiful. Also wonderful descriptions of what a life's memory contains and how terrible that is to loose.
Profound and memorable.
January 5, 2023
Edição portuguesa da Difel, “Seixo Rolado”, 2000
2,5*
O silêncio tranquilizava-me e dava-me força. Calar, sonhar a felicidade das horas de cada dia, de qualquer dia. Dos normais e dos maus. Daquele em que um raio matava uma vaca e tínhamos um grande desgosto, e daquele em que tudo parecia ter o seu lugar. A erva no palheiro, as galinhas na capoeira, as vacas tranquilas no estábulo, e todos a jantar à mesa.
Este é o relato simples de uma mulher simples contado de forma tão simples que acaba por ter pouco substracto e ser apenas mais uma novela sobre o mundo rural e a Guerra Civil espanhola. Maria Barbal expressa-se com veracidade através de uma camponesa humilde que conta a história da sua vida em vários episódios que vão avançando no tempo, mas sacrifica a linguagem e a capacidade de reflexão face aos acontecimentos e às dificuldades.
A mim, Jaume elevara-me à categoria de pessoa, e eu sentia uma mistura de agradecimento e estima. As pessoas estorvavam-me incluindo os filhos. E não falemos do trabalho; embora a actividade me desse vida, afastasse de qualquer lamentação e me deixasse inutilizada para pensar.
A História também se faz com os ignorantes e os fracos, mas “Seixo Rolado”, que quase parece uma redacção pueril de 100 páginas, soube-me a pouco.
2,5*
O silêncio tranquilizava-me e dava-me força. Calar, sonhar a felicidade das horas de cada dia, de qualquer dia. Dos normais e dos maus. Daquele em que um raio matava uma vaca e tínhamos um grande desgosto, e daquele em que tudo parecia ter o seu lugar. A erva no palheiro, as galinhas na capoeira, as vacas tranquilas no estábulo, e todos a jantar à mesa.
Este é o relato simples de uma mulher simples contado de forma tão simples que acaba por ter pouco substracto e ser apenas mais uma novela sobre o mundo rural e a Guerra Civil espanhola. Maria Barbal expressa-se com veracidade através de uma camponesa humilde que conta a história da sua vida em vários episódios que vão avançando no tempo, mas sacrifica a linguagem e a capacidade de reflexão face aos acontecimentos e às dificuldades.
A mim, Jaume elevara-me à categoria de pessoa, e eu sentia uma mistura de agradecimento e estima. As pessoas estorvavam-me incluindo os filhos. E não falemos do trabalho; embora a actividade me desse vida, afastasse de qualquer lamentação e me deixasse inutilizada para pensar.
A História também se faz com os ignorantes e os fracos, mas “Seixo Rolado”, que quase parece uma redacção pueril de 100 páginas, soube-me a pouco.
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May 1, 2015
Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost its savor, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out and trodden under foot of men.
- Matthew, 5:13
The phrase "salt of the earth" is used in so many ways, and a quick web search yields little consensus. I personally use it to mean "a decent, dependable, unpretentious person," and it is in this sense that the narrator, nicknamed Conxa, of the novella Pedra de tartera (2008; translated into English as Stone in a Landslide) by the Catalan author, Maria Barbal (b. 1949), is the salt of the earth.
With quick, calm strokes Barbal sketches the life of a girl in the Catalan mountains in the early 20th century - the hard work, nearly inexistent education, early marriage and quick succession of births, the passing of generations. In other words, the hardscrabble life of the overwhelming majority of humanity until quite recently. As if the struggle with Nature were not hard enough, the magic word "republic" reaches even the miniscule mountain village where Conxa lives with her growing brood. Then History arrives, and she isn't kind.
Conxa understands nothing of the "reasons" for all this, but she well understands the tragic consequences for her family...
But life must go on, even if it is a reduced life, a resigned life, one in which time takes its relentless toll, even though for Conxa time came to a halt one morning in 1939. How well Barbal tells this part, and how speechless one is left at the end when time and change have taken all of Conxa's life away. The savor has gone and the tramping of feet is nigh.
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http://leopard.booklikes.com/post/115...
January 6, 2021
This book shook me to the core. It punched me in the stomach. It is not JUST about The Spanish Civil War, it poignantly has you live through ONE person's experiences. It does not teach the whole history of the war, but what it does teach is true, honest and the reader is there in that other world. It is the narrator's (Conxa's)whole life you experience, from her childhood in a little village north of Barcelona, her family her husband and her children, old age and how the war shaped her. The title sums it up beautifully. The writing is absolutely gorgeous in all its simplicity. Inside the front cover there are a few lines by Meike Ziervogel at Peirene Press:
"I fell in love with Conxa's narratuve voice, its stoic calmness and the complete lack of anger and bitterness. It's a timeless voice, down to earth and full of human contradictory nuances. It's the expression of someone who searches for understanding in a changing world but senses that ultimately there may be no such understanding."
There is no point in my trying to say it better than that.
Do yourself a HUGE favor; read this short book. It says so much in very few words. This is the best book I have read about the Spanish Civil War. I recommend getting the facts via Wikipedia or a history book, and then reading this to understand how ONE woman felt who lived in Catalonia, Spain, at this time. It is happy and sad and mostly just very, very real.
"I fell in love with Conxa's narratuve voice, its stoic calmness and the complete lack of anger and bitterness. It's a timeless voice, down to earth and full of human contradictory nuances. It's the expression of someone who searches for understanding in a changing world but senses that ultimately there may be no such understanding."
There is no point in my trying to say it better than that.
Do yourself a HUGE favor; read this short book. It says so much in very few words. This is the best book I have read about the Spanish Civil War. I recommend getting the facts via Wikipedia or a history book, and then reading this to understand how ONE woman felt who lived in Catalonia, Spain, at this time. It is happy and sad and mostly just very, very real.
May 27, 2017
You don’t need either to display complicated narration fireworks or perform stylistic acrobatics to make your readers stare in awe at the last page of a book. Even a simple story can be told in a mesmerizing way. Sometimes less really means more. I feel indebted to a Catalan writer, Maria Barbal, for reminding me what matters most in literature. And not only in literature.
‘Stone in a Landslide’ is a concise novella with a very traditional structure. Simple is a keyword here. Everything is told straightforward but there are moments when prose smoothly and delicately turns into poetry and the borders are blurry. I loved the way Maria Barbal does it:
’Jaume told me that saying my name was like eating a sweet.’
‘The days joined one to another in a long rosary without mysteries.’
‘War is an evil that drags itself over the earth and leaves it sown with vipers and fire and knives with points upright.’
At first sight there’s nothing special about Conxa, who tells us the story of her life. It’s been painfully entangled with the history of Catalonia. Probably there have been thousands of women similar to Conxa. There is something noble in her simplicity though. She teaches us to how to appreciate even the tiniest things in life and to accept loss with dignity. ‘You have to keep going’. As simple as that.
For me reading ‘Stone in a Landside’ was like inhaling fresh air after a storm.
‘Stone in a Landslide’ is a concise novella with a very traditional structure. Simple is a keyword here. Everything is told straightforward but there are moments when prose smoothly and delicately turns into poetry and the borders are blurry. I loved the way Maria Barbal does it:
’Jaume told me that saying my name was like eating a sweet.’
‘The days joined one to another in a long rosary without mysteries.’
‘War is an evil that drags itself over the earth and leaves it sown with vipers and fire and knives with points upright.’
At first sight there’s nothing special about Conxa, who tells us the story of her life. It’s been painfully entangled with the history of Catalonia. Probably there have been thousands of women similar to Conxa. There is something noble in her simplicity though. She teaches us to how to appreciate even the tiniest things in life and to accept loss with dignity. ‘You have to keep going’. As simple as that.
For me reading ‘Stone in a Landside’ was like inhaling fresh air after a storm.
June 19, 2020
Ich fühle mich wie ein Stein im Geröll. Wenn irgendjemand oder irgendetwas mich anstößt, werde ich mit den anderen fallen und herunterrollen; wenn mir aber niemand einen Stoß versetzt, werde ich einfach hierbleiben, ohne mich zu rühren, einen Tag um den anderen …
Auf nur etwa 100 Seiten fasst die Erzählerin Conxa ihr ganzes Leben zusammen. Dreimal wurde der Stein angestoßen und jedesmal verlor Conxa einen Teil ihrer Welt. Als fünftes Kind einfacher Bergbauern in den katalanischen Pyrenäen muss sie ihre Familie verlassen, später nimmt ihr der spanische Bürgerkrieg ihren geliebten Mann und als alte Frau verliert sie auch noch ihre Heimat.
Sie ist eine jener Frauen mit dem schwarzem Kopftuch, die um 1900 herum geboren sind und die die Älteren von uns vielleicht auch aus anderen ländlichen Gegenden noch kennen. Einfach und in ihrer Erde verwurzelt nehmen sie das Leben so wie es ist, mit allen Freuden und all dem Leid.
Das besondere an diesem Roman ist die Authentizität, mit der Maria Barbal ihre Conxa erzählen lässt. Die Sprache ist so schlicht, natürlich und schnörkellos, sie berührt durch ihre körperliche Nähe zur Welt, sie braucht keine wortgewandten Deutungen und ist dabei weit entfernt von Kitsch oder Sozialromantik.
Das Buch ist 1985 in Barbals Muttersprache Catalán erschienen, Franco war gerade 10 Jahre tot. Damit ist es auch eines der ersten, das an die vielen Tausend von den Faschisten Ermordeten erinnert, die von ihren Mördern zum ewigen Vergessen in namenlosen Löchern verscharrt wurden, und es ist darüberhinaus ein starkes Lebenszeichen der in der Diktatur unterdrückten katalanischen Spache.
Auf nur etwa 100 Seiten fasst die Erzählerin Conxa ihr ganzes Leben zusammen. Dreimal wurde der Stein angestoßen und jedesmal verlor Conxa einen Teil ihrer Welt. Als fünftes Kind einfacher Bergbauern in den katalanischen Pyrenäen muss sie ihre Familie verlassen, später nimmt ihr der spanische Bürgerkrieg ihren geliebten Mann und als alte Frau verliert sie auch noch ihre Heimat.
Sie ist eine jener Frauen mit dem schwarzem Kopftuch, die um 1900 herum geboren sind und die die Älteren von uns vielleicht auch aus anderen ländlichen Gegenden noch kennen. Einfach und in ihrer Erde verwurzelt nehmen sie das Leben so wie es ist, mit allen Freuden und all dem Leid.
Das besondere an diesem Roman ist die Authentizität, mit der Maria Barbal ihre Conxa erzählen lässt. Die Sprache ist so schlicht, natürlich und schnörkellos, sie berührt durch ihre körperliche Nähe zur Welt, sie braucht keine wortgewandten Deutungen und ist dabei weit entfernt von Kitsch oder Sozialromantik.
Das Buch ist 1985 in Barbals Muttersprache Catalán erschienen, Franco war gerade 10 Jahre tot. Damit ist es auch eines der ersten, das an die vielen Tausend von den Faschisten Ermordeten erinnert, die von ihren Mördern zum ewigen Vergessen in namenlosen Löchern verscharrt wurden, und es ist darüberhinaus ein starkes Lebenszeichen der in der Diktatur unterdrückten katalanischen Spache.
March 20, 2022
Auf gerade 120 Seiten läßt Maria Barbal eine katalanische Bäurin ihre Lebensgeschichte erzählen. Und das in einer einfachen und lakonischen Sprache, die eben genau so zu der Ich-Erzählerin passt. Und trotzdem sind die Gefühle, z Bsp, die Liebe zu ihrem Mann wirklich spürbar und an manchen Stellen fand ich es auch poetisch. Das Buch zeigt auch die Auswirkungen von geschichtlichen Entwicklungen auf das Leben der einfachen Leute. " Wie ein Stein im Geröll"
Ein ruhiges und gutes Buch, das mich sehr berührt hat.
Ein ruhiges und gutes Buch, das mich sehr berührt hat.
April 12, 2015
"I feel like a stone in a landslide. If someone or something disturbs it, I'll come tumbling down with the others. If nothing comes near I'll be here, still, for days and days..."
Description: Loss, love, life, guilt, hate, history, war and death. This little book covers it all, including an entire century and a complete life. When I finished reading it I felt as if there was nothing more to say.
Admittedly, on the surface it sounds like any old country side story. The Catalan Pyrenees at the beginning of the last century: 13-year-old Conxa is sent to live and work for her childless aunt in another village. Years of hard work follow. Eventually she finds love and happiness with Jaume. But the civil war causes havoc and Conxa moves to Barcelona. It is here that she, now an old woman, sits down to tell us her story.
Opening: Anyone could see there were a lot of us at home. Someone had to go.
Whilst all the covers are simply beautiful, not all the stories have held appeal, yet this one is a perfect little bundle, a bit like Conxa herself when in the company of Juame:
But Juame told me that saying my name was like eating a sweet, that it was the name of something small and delicious that he liked very much. It was if he'd been born to take away my fears, to bring light where I saw darkness and to flatten what felt like mountains to me.
Why do hundreds of stones
always fall at once?
Peirene Press:
4* Stone in a Landslide
4* The Brothers
WL Beside the Sea
4* The Murder of Halland
4* Next World Novella
1* Portrait of the Mother as a Young Woman
1* The Blue Room
May 23, 2016
A powerful, heart-rending story told in Conxa's humble and impassive voice. Conxa is a simple Catalan peasant woman who accepts her crosses with grace, humility and stoicism.
The story is set in Catalonia in the early 1900s. There is no drama in her life. There is only simple everyday living in a farming community, sometimes pleasant, but at most times trying, until one day a fatal blow from above snatches her husband away. Even after the ordeal of being oppressed by those wielding power, Conxa knows she has no alternative but to go on living for her family's sake, and she does, with unfazed calmness. Life just goes on without drama.
Yet it is exactly the lack of drama and the tantalizing calmness that takes your breath away.
The story is set in Catalonia in the early 1900s. There is no drama in her life. There is only simple everyday living in a farming community, sometimes pleasant, but at most times trying, until one day a fatal blow from above snatches her husband away. Even after the ordeal of being oppressed by those wielding power, Conxa knows she has no alternative but to go on living for her family's sake, and she does, with unfazed calmness. Life just goes on without drama.
Yet it is exactly the lack of drama and the tantalizing calmness that takes your breath away.
January 11, 2015
We meet Conxa as a 13-year-old girl living in the Catalan Pyrenees, Spain at the beginning of the last century, though she narrates the story from the other end of her life, reflecting back on her journey as an old woman.
One of six children, the opening lines tell us how she came to live with her childless aunt and uncle, leaving her family, home, village and mountain behind at such a tender age.
In short chapters of around two pages, we observe the change in Conxa’s life, her new duties, how people perceive her initially as an outsider and how that perception begins to change, she has become an heir to land thus her marriage prospects have increased. She suffers silently from being separated from her family, but in time accepts her new role and life.
Stone in a Landslide is such an apt metaphor for Conxa and yet she was not like the others. She doesn’t complain, she loves genuinely, she accepts her circumstances and only at the end when she is physically removed from her natural surrounding does she come close to realising how much a part of that landscape she is as a person. She coped with many changes, from daughter to adopted daughter, lover, mother within her natural environment, but the final move puts her somewhere beyond reach, beyond comprehension of how to be who she really is.
Another excellent addition to the collection and discovery of another wonderful writer.
My full review here at Word by Word.
One of six children, the opening lines tell us how she came to live with her childless aunt and uncle, leaving her family, home, village and mountain behind at such a tender age.
In short chapters of around two pages, we observe the change in Conxa’s life, her new duties, how people perceive her initially as an outsider and how that perception begins to change, she has become an heir to land thus her marriage prospects have increased. She suffers silently from being separated from her family, but in time accepts her new role and life.
Stone in a Landslide is such an apt metaphor for Conxa and yet she was not like the others. She doesn’t complain, she loves genuinely, she accepts her circumstances and only at the end when she is physically removed from her natural surrounding does she come close to realising how much a part of that landscape she is as a person. She coped with many changes, from daughter to adopted daughter, lover, mother within her natural environment, but the final move puts her somewhere beyond reach, beyond comprehension of how to be who she really is.
“Perhaps I had turned into a living stone, or it was just that I had never known how to rebel…. I felt that I was going to need to be strong, but I had no idea why.”
Another excellent addition to the collection and discovery of another wonderful writer.
My full review here at Word by Word.
December 3, 2023
Tan ben escrita. No la pots deixar. L'aparent simplicitat de la vida d'una dona del camp, sempre treballant, sense ambició, que estima el seu marit, transcorre com un riu tranquil fins que és atravessada per la duresa del feixisme i la guerra. La força de les que sostenen la casa, les dones
October 5, 2015
Evidentment, el que fascina d'aquesta breu novel·la no és la trama en si, ja que no es tracta pas d'una història plenament original ni plena de sorpreses, sinó que l'estil de Barbal t'introdueix en la ment d'aquest esplèndit personatge que és la Conxa i tu et deixes portar a través dels seus records, emocionant-te amb ella d'una forma tan subtil que ni tan sols te n'adones. I el títol, que a primer cop d'ull pot semblar estrany o poc atractiu, quan n'entens la simbologia acaba convertint-se, en realitat, en un dels títols més ben posats que jo mai hagi vist.
December 15, 2018
Öyle ya, en çokta tesadüfen denk gelince "Belki sarıp sarmalayacağım bir kitaptır!" diye hevesle aldığım kitaplar böyle kursağımda kalıyor.
"Ne yapalım arkadaș hep mi araștıralım hep mi planlı programlı okuyalım yav" diye yakınmaya bașladığım vakit șu repliği anımsayıp kendime geliyorum, size de ışık olsun:
"Umut iyi bir șeydir, belki de en iyisi. Ve iyi șeyler asla ölmez."
Bizde durumlar böyle; bi' umuttur teker tokmak gidiyoruz iște, fakirin ekmeği daha n'olsun.💧
"Ne yapalım arkadaș hep mi araștıralım hep mi planlı programlı okuyalım yav" diye yakınmaya bașladığım vakit șu repliği anımsayıp kendime geliyorum, size de ışık olsun:
"Umut iyi bir șeydir, belki de en iyisi. Ve iyi șeyler asla ölmez."
Bizde durumlar böyle; bi' umuttur teker tokmak gidiyoruz iște, fakirin ekmeği daha n'olsun.💧
January 18, 2016
This was, as people used to say about some albums, a grower. The first-person life story of an ordinary woman born in a Catalan farming village in the early 1900s, told over about 90 pages, at first I found it too simple, as if it should have been for pre-teens /YA. (Conxa is 13 at the start.) Its main value, I figured, was historical detail, and a story about an area and language I know little about. [The place names, and the few Catalan words untranslated create the impression of a language half way between French and Spanish: for example Conxa goes to live with her Oncle and Tia.] The action also seemed hurried, whole years elided, not enough immersion in particular days or activities or landscapes - instead it's family history, one damn thing after another, as people married, were born, moved, died. And, although you're hoping that it somehow won't interrupt this existence which seems unchanged for centuries, the Spanish Civil War rips through everyone's lives. I kept thinking it would be wonderful to have heard one's own grandmother tell her story like this: the sucession of events was more like personal reminiscence than a novel... but I wasn't related or from the same area and I wasn't all that invested. Then, I can't remember exactly when, but at least half way through, I started really liking it anyway and was very glad to have 'met' this quiet, calm old lady. The narrative was a little more philosophical and abstract towards the end, yet she seemed more present than ever.
August 2, 2021
(Nota: 3.5)
Maria Barbal dona veu a una pagesa que narra la seva vida (des de començaments del segle XX fins a finals d'aquest mateix segle), i en fer-ho dona veu també a les més silenciades d'entre tots aquells que no tenen veu: aquelles que no apareixen a la història ni tan sols com una nota a peu de pàgina. Són, tanmateix, dones fortes, que porten el pes no només de les seves llars, sinó d'una tradició de la qual són marmessores.
I al mateix temps és la història d'una terra que tremola i s'esquerda sota el pes d'una guerra que arriba com un eco llunyà, sense que ningú sapiga molt bé d'on.
I al mateix temps, i sobretot, és la crònica d'una forma de vida -dura i esgotadora, injusta a vegades, però amb la seva plenitud, modesta i sincera- que arriba a la seva fi.
'Pedra de tartera' fou el debut literari de Maria Barbal (un debut literari prou reeixit, cal dir), i li meresqué el premi Joaquim Ruyreda.
Maria Barbal dona veu a una pagesa que narra la seva vida (des de començaments del segle XX fins a finals d'aquest mateix segle), i en fer-ho dona veu també a les més silenciades d'entre tots aquells que no tenen veu: aquelles que no apareixen a la història ni tan sols com una nota a peu de pàgina. Són, tanmateix, dones fortes, que porten el pes no només de les seves llars, sinó d'una tradició de la qual són marmessores.
I al mateix temps és la història d'una terra que tremola i s'esquerda sota el pes d'una guerra que arriba com un eco llunyà, sense que ningú sapiga molt bé d'on.
I al mateix temps, i sobretot, és la crònica d'una forma de vida -dura i esgotadora, injusta a vegades, però amb la seva plenitud, modesta i sincera- que arriba a la seva fi.
'Pedra de tartera' fou el debut literari de Maria Barbal (un debut literari prou reeixit, cal dir), i li meresqué el premi Joaquim Ruyreda.
May 27, 2010
One of the things I have always loved about a good book is the way it takes you into places and times you'd never otherwise have a chance to experience. This book conveys utterly convincingly the experience of growing up in a small mountain village in early 20th century Catalonia. I really felt as if I was there with Conxa and Jaume and their children and the aunt and uncle.
This is a historical novel that spans several generations and takes in major historical events like the Spanish Civil War. Yet it is only 126 pages. And yet it doesn't feel rushed. In fact, most of the time is spent embroiled in the details of everyday life, describing the buzzing of flies looking for food, the walnut trees turning green, and exactly how the meadows looked as the characters went picking mushrooms. Births and deaths are skipped over, decades pass, wars and revolutions come and go, but more importantly it's time to take the animals to pasture and the poplar trees are waving in the wind.
It's a slightly strange way to tell a story, but it made me realise that memories do really work this way. If I think back over my life, I don't form an orderly, logical chronology - I see pictures and scenes, some of important events but also some that just happened to lodge in my mind because I was particularly happy or sad at the time, or it was a particularly warm or cold day, etc. There are gaps of years where I can't remember much at all, and then a particular day I remember in great detail.
That's pretty much the way this book is put together, and it works very well. It feels like what it is, the remembrances of an old woman looking back on her life, and the accumulation of details allowed me to feel part of the story much more than in many much longer books I've read. The passage of time is marked very clearly, and although the story covers a lifetime in 126 pages, the fast-forwarding never feels abrupt.
Conxa's outlook is very limited. Her husband Jaume is interested in politics and wants to improve things, a chance he thinks he has got with the declaration of the Republic. But Conxa has no interest in these things, or in anything beyond the next village. Even Barcelona seems so far away that it has no meaning for her. She does care deeply about things close to her, though, the family and the house and the farm. It's the changes that take place in these things, as time moves on and the next generation have different ideas about the lives they want to live, that shock her much more than the wars and political upheavals she lives through.
The title of the book provides a good insight into Conxa's character. Here's the context of it:
"I feel like a stone after a landslide. If someone or something stirs it, I'll come tumbling down with the others. If nothing comes near, I'll be here still, for days and days..."
This is uttered in a moment of extreme stress, when Conxa is in shock. But it also typifies the rest of her life, in which none of the major things that happen are under her control. She lives where she does because her parents sent her there as a child. She wants to marry Jaume, but when her aunt and uncle refuse, the limit of her rebellion is to cry and then be quiet and unhappy until they change their minds. Later on, when she and her children are arrested because of Jaume's political activities, it is her daughter who finds out information and tries to get them out, while Conxa sits there like the proverbial stone. It's a fascinating character depiction. It never feels like weakness: Conxa is, in her way, a very strong woman. But because of the way she was brought up, in that place and time, she just doesn't try to change her fate. Things happen, and she seems to accept them all, good or bad.
I was left wanting more at the end, but in a good way. It wasn't that anything remained unresolved. The novel had reached a satisfying conclusion, but I still wanted to hear more of Conxa's voice, more about a fascinating life in a different world. The book is in its 50th edition in Catalan but this is the first English translation, and I would strongly recommend reading it.
This is a historical novel that spans several generations and takes in major historical events like the Spanish Civil War. Yet it is only 126 pages. And yet it doesn't feel rushed. In fact, most of the time is spent embroiled in the details of everyday life, describing the buzzing of flies looking for food, the walnut trees turning green, and exactly how the meadows looked as the characters went picking mushrooms. Births and deaths are skipped over, decades pass, wars and revolutions come and go, but more importantly it's time to take the animals to pasture and the poplar trees are waving in the wind.
It's a slightly strange way to tell a story, but it made me realise that memories do really work this way. If I think back over my life, I don't form an orderly, logical chronology - I see pictures and scenes, some of important events but also some that just happened to lodge in my mind because I was particularly happy or sad at the time, or it was a particularly warm or cold day, etc. There are gaps of years where I can't remember much at all, and then a particular day I remember in great detail.
That's pretty much the way this book is put together, and it works very well. It feels like what it is, the remembrances of an old woman looking back on her life, and the accumulation of details allowed me to feel part of the story much more than in many much longer books I've read. The passage of time is marked very clearly, and although the story covers a lifetime in 126 pages, the fast-forwarding never feels abrupt.
Conxa's outlook is very limited. Her husband Jaume is interested in politics and wants to improve things, a chance he thinks he has got with the declaration of the Republic. But Conxa has no interest in these things, or in anything beyond the next village. Even Barcelona seems so far away that it has no meaning for her. She does care deeply about things close to her, though, the family and the house and the farm. It's the changes that take place in these things, as time moves on and the next generation have different ideas about the lives they want to live, that shock her much more than the wars and political upheavals she lives through.
The title of the book provides a good insight into Conxa's character. Here's the context of it:
"I feel like a stone after a landslide. If someone or something stirs it, I'll come tumbling down with the others. If nothing comes near, I'll be here still, for days and days..."
This is uttered in a moment of extreme stress, when Conxa is in shock. But it also typifies the rest of her life, in which none of the major things that happen are under her control. She lives where she does because her parents sent her there as a child. She wants to marry Jaume, but when her aunt and uncle refuse, the limit of her rebellion is to cry and then be quiet and unhappy until they change their minds. Later on, when she and her children are arrested because of Jaume's political activities, it is her daughter who finds out information and tries to get them out, while Conxa sits there like the proverbial stone. It's a fascinating character depiction. It never feels like weakness: Conxa is, in her way, a very strong woman. But because of the way she was brought up, in that place and time, she just doesn't try to change her fate. Things happen, and she seems to accept them all, good or bad.
I was left wanting more at the end, but in a good way. It wasn't that anything remained unresolved. The novel had reached a satisfying conclusion, but I still wanted to hear more of Conxa's voice, more about a fascinating life in a different world. The book is in its 50th edition in Catalan but this is the first English translation, and I would strongly recommend reading it.
October 12, 2020
החיים בקטלוניה הכפרית בתחילת המאה הקודמת ועד למלחמת האזרחים האכזרית שהסתיימה במשטר הפשיסטי תחת שלטון פרנקו, מסופרים דרך עיניה וזכרונותיה של גיבורת הסיפור קונשה.
הספר מחולק לשלושה חלקים כאשר כל חלק מוקדש לתקופה אחרת בחייה לפי סדר כרונולוגי: תקופת הילדות, תקופת הנערות והבגרות וכלה בתקופה בה קונשה כבר זקנה (או לפחות כך היא מרגישה), אם לילדיה הנשואים וסבתא לנכדים.
קונשה, בת חמישית למשפחה כפרית קשת יום, עוברת בילדותה לחיות בביתה של דודתה החיה בכפר אחר יחד עם בעלה המבוגר ממנה בשנים רבות. המעבר, שנועד להקל על משפחתה מבחינה כלכלית, משרת את שתי המשפחות שכן הדודה ובעלה חשוכי ילדים וכך בפועל קונשה הופכת לבת בית וליד ימינה של דודתה בכל מה שקשור בעבודות הבית והשדה היום יומיות.
בהמשך מתארת המספרת את סיפור אהבתה לז׳אומה, נישואיהם וחיי השגרה בכפר בביתה של הדודה.
אם אתם מתרשמים עד כה שבעצם מדובר בשעמום אחד גדול, אז זהו שממש לא. הקריאה אמנם מצריכה סבלנות כיוון שהקצב איטי ותואם את חיי השגרה בכפר, אבל הקריאה שוטפת, הכתיבה ישירה וכנה ואותי היא כבשה.
החלק השלישי בסיפור, שהוא גם המעניין ביותר, מתחיל בתיאור עולמה של קונשה ושתי בנותיהן, אשר מתהפך עליהן בשל מעורבותו של בעלה ז׳אומה במלחמת האזרחים ומסתיים כאמור בתקופת זקנתה.
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הקצב האיטי כאמור והכתיבה המאופקת והאמינה, בסופו של דבר משרתת את הסיפור כולו ובמיוחד את חלקו האחרון. בהקשר זה מעניין שתיאור מלחמת האזרחים כמעט ואינו קיים ומה שנכתב ממקוד בהקשר של קונשה ומשפחתה. גם חלק זה, למרבה ההפתעה, ממשיך את אותו איפוק, לכאורה חסר רגשנות אבל זה רק לכאורה. אני הרגשתי הזדהות עם המספרת וסגנון הכתיבה הנ״ל במבט לאחור תואם את אישיותה הכנועה והצייתנית הטבועה בה מקטנותה.
זהו מסוג הספרים שרק לאחר סיום הקריאה אתה מפנים עד כמה מדובר בספר מעולה ובסופרת גדולה ובהזדמנות זו גם אציין שהשורה האחרונה בספר היא אחת המרגשות שקראתי.
לסיום, מומלץ במיוחד לקרוא את אחרית הדבר של המשורר והמתרגם הרב לשוני והמעולה רמי סערי, שמזמן הייתי מעניק לו את פרס ישראל על מפעל התרגומים שלו לעברית משלל השפות בהן הוא שולט.
הספר מחולק לשלושה חלקים כאשר כל חלק מוקדש לתקופה אחרת בחייה לפי סדר כרונולוגי: תקופת הילדות, תקופת הנערות והבגרות וכלה בתקופה בה קונשה כבר זקנה (או לפחות כך היא מרגישה), אם לילדיה הנשואים וסבתא לנכדים.
קונשה, בת חמישית למשפחה כפרית קשת יום, עוברת בילדותה לחיות בביתה של דודתה החיה בכפר אחר יחד עם בעלה המבוגר ממנה בשנים רבות. המעבר, שנועד להקל על משפחתה מבחינה כלכלית, משרת את שתי המשפחות שכן הדודה ובעלה חשוכי ילדים וכך בפועל קונשה הופכת לבת בית וליד ימינה של דודתה בכל מה שקשור בעבודות הבית והשדה היום יומיות.
בהמשך מתארת המספרת את סיפור אהבתה לז׳אומה, נישואיהם וחיי השגרה בכפר בביתה של הדודה.
אם אתם מתרשמים עד כה שבעצם מדובר בשעמום אחד גדול, אז זהו שממש לא. הקריאה אמנם מצריכה סבלנות כיוון שהקצב איטי ותואם את חיי השגרה בכפר, אבל הקריאה שוטפת, הכתיבה ישירה וכנה ואותי היא כבשה.
החלק השלישי בסיפור, שהוא גם המעניין ביותר, מתחיל בתיאור עולמה של קונשה ושתי בנותיהן, אשר מתהפך עליהן בשל מעורבותו של בעלה ז׳אומה במלחמת האזרחים ומסתיים כאמור בתקופת זקנתה.
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הקצב האיטי כאמור והכתיבה המאופקת והאמינה, בסופו של דבר משרתת את הסיפור כולו ובמיוחד את חלקו האחרון. בהקשר זה מעניין שתיאור מלחמת האזרחים כמעט ואינו קיים ומה שנכתב ממקוד בהקשר של קונשה ומשפחתה. גם חלק זה, למרבה ההפתעה, ממשיך את אותו איפוק, לכאורה חסר רגשנות אבל זה רק לכאורה. אני הרגשתי הזדהות עם המספרת וסגנון הכתיבה הנ״ל במבט לאחור תואם את אישיותה הכנועה והצייתנית הטבועה בה מקטנותה.
זהו מסוג הספרים שרק לאחר סיום הקריאה אתה מפנים עד כמה מדובר בספר מעולה ובסופרת גדולה ובהזדמנות זו גם אציין שהשורה האחרונה בספר היא אחת המרגשות שקראתי.
לסיום, מומלץ במיוחד לקרוא את אחרית הדבר של המשורר והמתרגם הרב לשוני והמעולה רמי סערי, שמזמן הייתי מעניק לו את פרס ישראל על מפעל התרגומים שלו לעברית משלל השפות בהן הוא שולט.
February 10, 2011
Really enjoyed this simply told, earthy Catalan classic. Set at the start of the 20th century, 13-year-old Conxa goes to work for a childless aunt. As the years go by she falls in love, marries, has children, witnesses the Spanish Civil War. It's a very touching and heartfelt story of one woman's hard life.
Here's a sample of the writing. She says of her husband Jaume, "It was as if he had been born to take away my fears, to bring light where I saw darkness and to flatten what felt like a mountain to me."
Here's a sample of the writing. She says of her husband Jaume, "It was as if he had been born to take away my fears, to bring light where I saw darkness and to flatten what felt like a mountain to me."
August 5, 2024
Segurament he sigut massa generosa, segurament no és un llibre tant bo.Però m'ha semblat una fantasia.
Jugava amb avantatge perquè tinc devoció per les històries de la guerra civil.
Una història pausada de les que m'agraden. Amb dones com a protagonistes i un viatge vital. Veiem créixer a la família.
Ho tenia tot per encisar-me, i de bon tros ho ha fet.
Només puc dir que es llegeix en una tarda d'agost i que el necessiteu a les vostres vides
Jugava amb avantatge perquè tinc devoció per les històries de la guerra civil.
Una història pausada de les que m'agraden. Amb dones com a protagonistes i un viatge vital. Veiem créixer a la família.
Ho tenia tot per encisar-me, i de bon tros ho ha fet.
Només puc dir que es llegeix en una tarda d'agost i que el necessiteu a les vostres vides
December 17, 2022
Del Pallars (lloc on està ambientada l'obra) al Segrià (d'on era la meva padrina) hi ha uns quants km, però tot i això en la Conxa he vist reflectida a la meva padrina. La Conxa m'ha fet veure el món a través els seus ulls. Una realitat rural molt diferent de l'actual en molts sentits: mode de vida, costums, rols familiars, aspiracions, etc.
Quan era petita, tot i que m'esforçava em costava molt entendre a la padrina. No entenia per què tot havia de ser patiment, desgracies, treballar, perills, etc. El meu dia a dia de nena nascuda als 2000 i que sempre tenia el plat ple a taula s'avorria de sentir sempre el mateix. De gran l'he entès més i aquest llibre m'ha fet reconnectar amb ella i recordar moments i frases seves.
L'últim capítol en especial m'ha deixat un regust amarg i trist. Quan Conxa reflexiona sobre la vellesa i la soledat em fica realment trista. Em fa preguntar-me si la meva padrina se sentia així i m'entristeix. Dels fills de la guerra no només ens separa la diferència d'edat, sinó que ells van néixer en un món molt diferent del nostre. A causa de l'acceleració del temps i dels grans canvis, del món on van néixer en queda ben poc. Són cossos anacrònics en un present de transformació voraç.
Destaco aquestes frases:
"A mesura que es faria gran Jaume, i en acabat el seu germà Lluís, viurien ben lluny de la padrina encara que mengessin a la mateixa taula"
"Quan hi ha algú de fora no em fan callar... És una forma de ser distingit quan saps ben segur que t'has convertit en una vella inútil"
Quan era petita, tot i que m'esforçava em costava molt entendre a la padrina. No entenia per què tot havia de ser patiment, desgracies, treballar, perills, etc. El meu dia a dia de nena nascuda als 2000 i que sempre tenia el plat ple a taula s'avorria de sentir sempre el mateix. De gran l'he entès més i aquest llibre m'ha fet reconnectar amb ella i recordar moments i frases seves.
L'últim capítol en especial m'ha deixat un regust amarg i trist. Quan Conxa reflexiona sobre la vellesa i la soledat em fica realment trista. Em fa preguntar-me si la meva padrina se sentia així i m'entristeix. Dels fills de la guerra no només ens separa la diferència d'edat, sinó que ells van néixer en un món molt diferent del nostre. A causa de l'acceleració del temps i dels grans canvis, del món on van néixer en queda ben poc. Són cossos anacrònics en un present de transformació voraç.
Destaco aquestes frases:
"A mesura que es faria gran Jaume, i en acabat el seu germà Lluís, viurien ben lluny de la padrina encara que mengessin a la mateixa taula"
"Quan hi ha algú de fora no em fan callar... És una forma de ser distingit quan saps ben segur que t'has convertit en una vella inútil"
June 15, 2019
This novella about the life of a Catalan country woman living around the time of the Spanish Civil War is written in simple, direct prose. As the story progresses, the reader comes to understand how much lies below the surface of what is said
August 12, 2022
Relatant la senzillesa de la vida i a l'hora la seva complicitat, llegir aquest llibre envoltat de muntanyes, rius i estanys és un privilegi
March 4, 2018
Even though “A stone in a landslide” is very short it still covers a whole life. To fit so much into so few pages must be hard but Barbal has done a great job! As a reader you come very close to Conxa and really feel what she is feeling. The only complaint I have is that it didn’t become intense or exciting before the war takes place which, unfortunately, is quite late. But since the book is so short that’s not really an issue!
December 12, 2012
Peirene Press specialises in novellas translated from a variety of European languages - this one was written in Catalan and tells the story of Conxa - brought up in a remote village in Spain before the Spanish Civil war changed everything. It’s a story of a particular kind of innocence that provides no protection against the world of complex international politics. ‘War,’ Conxa writes ‘is an evil that drags itself over the earth and leaves it sown with vipers and fire and knives with points upright. And I was barefoot with my children......’
Peirene Press gives us access to literature not usually available in English, written in very different literary traditions - and that’s why I like them so much. They aren’t manufactured in a literary world dominated by media marketing gurus and the creative writing factories of Britain and the USA. Stone in a Landslide was first published in 1985 and is a Catalan classic.
It belongs to a much gentler tradition of oral story-telling. It’s a memoir of a life lived with no big events other than birth, marriage, sickness and death and no narrative hooks other than the desire to know what happens to the shy compliant girl, forced to leave her home because there isn’t enough food to go round. In the early years of the twentieth century, when peasant communities across Europe were still isolated and impoverished, Conxa is sent to live with a childless aunt.
All the bewilderment of someone who has never been out of sight of their home at any time in their life is conjured up in the novel as Conxa is taken to a nearby village to be handed over to her aunt and Uncle. Because travel can only be afforded on foot, Conxa knows that she will rarely see her parents or brothers and sisters again.
Conxa has been brought up to obey - to keep quiet - not to have an opinion. Fortunately her uncle and aunt are kindly and she is allowed to marry the man she falls in love with. Her delight is in the landscape, in the daily tasks of feeding animals, fetching in the hay, cooking food for her family - she has no interest in politics and is happy to believe the priests who tell her that it is God’s will that everyone keeps their allotted places. But for her husband Jaume, it’s different. The world Conxa lives in is about to be changed and she has only her own courage and integrity to carry her through.
Peirene Press gives us access to literature not usually available in English, written in very different literary traditions - and that’s why I like them so much. They aren’t manufactured in a literary world dominated by media marketing gurus and the creative writing factories of Britain and the USA. Stone in a Landslide was first published in 1985 and is a Catalan classic.
It belongs to a much gentler tradition of oral story-telling. It’s a memoir of a life lived with no big events other than birth, marriage, sickness and death and no narrative hooks other than the desire to know what happens to the shy compliant girl, forced to leave her home because there isn’t enough food to go round. In the early years of the twentieth century, when peasant communities across Europe were still isolated and impoverished, Conxa is sent to live with a childless aunt.
All the bewilderment of someone who has never been out of sight of their home at any time in their life is conjured up in the novel as Conxa is taken to a nearby village to be handed over to her aunt and Uncle. Because travel can only be afforded on foot, Conxa knows that she will rarely see her parents or brothers and sisters again.
Conxa has been brought up to obey - to keep quiet - not to have an opinion. Fortunately her uncle and aunt are kindly and she is allowed to marry the man she falls in love with. Her delight is in the landscape, in the daily tasks of feeding animals, fetching in the hay, cooking food for her family - she has no interest in politics and is happy to believe the priests who tell her that it is God’s will that everyone keeps their allotted places. But for her husband Jaume, it’s different. The world Conxa lives in is about to be changed and she has only her own courage and integrity to carry her through.
July 1, 2018
«Ahora, sin la protección del cobertizo, es una lluvia muy fina lo que siento recorriéndome el cuerpo hasta le espinazo. Es un temblor brutal que me desgarra en silencio. ¿Tan malos somos, Dios mío, para merecer tanto sufrimiento?»
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¿Cómo he tardado tanto, Dios mío, en conocer a Maria Barbal y leer este libro, una de las grandes obras de la literatura catalana? Hay #joyitas escondidas en los anaqueles de las librerías esperando a ser recuperadas, a ser leídas, a que sus historias rueden y rueden arrasando, emocionando, vibrando.
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«Canto rodado» es mucho más que la historia contada en primera persona de Conxa, una mujer que de niña se vio obligada a abandonar su casa en Ermita (demasiadas bocas para tan poco pan) para irse a vivir a la casa de sus tíos en Pallarés. Es también mucho más que un relato rural de la comarca de Pallars, en Lérida, donde hasta el más rico era pobre y tan apartada que «ir de un sitio a otro costaba tanto que, cuando llegábamos, un montón de veces, ya era tarde». Es mucho más que el relato de la niña que se hace mujer, da voces a mujeres anónimas, se casa, es madre y comprueba cómo la Guerra Civil la arrebatará las riendas de su destino una vez más. 🥀
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Siempre que abro un libro cortito me recuerdo que he de tener cuidado, que muchas veces son los más peligrosos, los que más huellas dejan en la piel y los que más perforarán los recuerdos. Apenas ciento veinte páginas que, lo confieso, me hicieron llorar como pocos libros lo han hecho.
#MariaBarbal #CantoRodado #LeoAutoras #yllorarparareflexionar #LugaresescondidosHistoriasuniversales
🥀
🥀
🥀
¿Cómo he tardado tanto, Dios mío, en conocer a Maria Barbal y leer este libro, una de las grandes obras de la literatura catalana? Hay #joyitas escondidas en los anaqueles de las librerías esperando a ser recuperadas, a ser leídas, a que sus historias rueden y rueden arrasando, emocionando, vibrando.
🥀
🥀
🥀
«Canto rodado» es mucho más que la historia contada en primera persona de Conxa, una mujer que de niña se vio obligada a abandonar su casa en Ermita (demasiadas bocas para tan poco pan) para irse a vivir a la casa de sus tíos en Pallarés. Es también mucho más que un relato rural de la comarca de Pallars, en Lérida, donde hasta el más rico era pobre y tan apartada que «ir de un sitio a otro costaba tanto que, cuando llegábamos, un montón de veces, ya era tarde». Es mucho más que el relato de la niña que se hace mujer, da voces a mujeres anónimas, se casa, es madre y comprueba cómo la Guerra Civil la arrebatará las riendas de su destino una vez más. 🥀
🥀
🥀
Siempre que abro un libro cortito me recuerdo que he de tener cuidado, que muchas veces son los más peligrosos, los que más huellas dejan en la piel y los que más perforarán los recuerdos. Apenas ciento veinte páginas que, lo confieso, me hicieron llorar como pocos libros lo han hecho.
#MariaBarbal #CantoRodado #LeoAutoras #yllorarparareflexionar #LugaresescondidosHistoriasuniversales
March 18, 2018
A cloud of memories filled every inch of every room. Gradually, all that would remain would be a pale mist, without faces or words. When the cloud dissolved into a slow rain along with my memory, a part of the life of the family would have died. The iron beds and the cheap icons above the headboards, the uneven walls and the big wooden table with two benches which would no longer wait for someone to come and sit on them. It would all get covered in dust and cobwebs until a storm opened the first crack in the walls. A little bit of the story would remain, and if one day someone remembered it and told the tale, people would listen to him with friendly, open eyes.
A whole life described in a novella of 120 (large print) pages, read in a couple of hours? It doesn't seem possible that it could be done in any depth, and yet at the end you feel you are with Conxa in a cramped room in Barcelona with no natural light, looking back at a simple life distorted by forces beyond her understanding. The last couple of pages are stunning.
Conxa has no formal education, and the skill of Barbal is to take this simple voice with no fancy words and no understanding of life beyond her village, and make it convey with force the feeling of living through this time.
A whole life described in a novella of 120 (large print) pages, read in a couple of hours? It doesn't seem possible that it could be done in any depth, and yet at the end you feel you are with Conxa in a cramped room in Barcelona with no natural light, looking back at a simple life distorted by forces beyond her understanding. The last couple of pages are stunning.
Conxa has no formal education, and the skill of Barbal is to take this simple voice with no fancy words and no understanding of life beyond her village, and make it convey with force the feeling of living through this time.
October 10, 2021
Without pathos, in a simple and almost lyrical style, Maria Barbal tells the story of one Catalan peasant woman, Conxa, from her poor and deprived childhood, through the good years of her adulthood in which she finds love and her own worth, the terrible impact of the Civil War on her simple life and, finally, the years of her old age.
It is the moving story of a whole life, maintaining the same low-key narration throughout, and seasoned with wonderful descriptions of the countryside, the work in the fields, the farm animals, and the endless loop of days, years and seasons. The writing is absolutely beautiful.
It is the moving story of a whole life, maintaining the same low-key narration throughout, and seasoned with wonderful descriptions of the countryside, the work in the fields, the farm animals, and the endless loop of days, years and seasons. The writing is absolutely beautiful.
February 28, 2018
El capítol final és absolutament brillant. Una novel·la breu que es llegeix d'una sentada i desenvolupa la psicologia de la protagonista-narradora de forma excepcional. Potser m'ha recordat massa a la Colometa de La plaça del Diamant i això m'ha tret bastant de la història, però ja sigut una bona lectura. També m'ha fascinat el llenguatge pallarès amb que està escrita, bastant semblant al meu dialecte i això ha fet que m'identifiqués més amb l'escenari.
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