I Gave You Eyes and You Looked Towards Darkness by Irene Solà
Catalan writer Irene Solà's masterful new novel is an incendiary exploration of bodies and memory
Translated from the original Catalan by Mara Faye Lethem, Irene Solà’s I Gave You Eyes and You Looked Towards Darkness is a novel of memory and monsters. And mothers. This is writing which revels in fecundity in all its forms. To say it depicts nature red in tooth and claw is understatement writ large. Set across a single day, but also over 400 years, it reads like a stream of near-unconsciousness from the indefatigable Bernadeta’s final moments, which are shared with the women to whom she is intrinsically linked. As stories are recalled there are references to folk traditions and faerie tales, with battles played out between Christian and pagan, and deals with the devil made and reneged. But while mythology and legend are at its heart, with humans and animals often indistinguishable, it’s also a highly literary novel, with quotes from the likes of Anna T. Szabó, Pau Riba, and Ali Smith.
Solà's book celebrates the tradition of storytelling in a manner which is both ancient and artful. Mara Faye Lethem’s translation never takes you out of what’s happening on the page, but there is a consistent otherness which has to do with what’s being depicted rather than how.' Solà’s imagery is beyond arresting – it burns itself into your retina as you read, but what stays with you are the relationships between the impossible Bernadeta and those around her.
