Napalm in the Heart by Pol Guasch
Politically wistful and brimming with queer desire, Pol Guasch's debut novel evokes an end of days which might not be far beyond us
Napalm in the Heart is a haunting and inventive debut novel by poet Pol Guasch. It's rich with imagery thanks to Mara Faye Lethem’s translation from Catalan which maintains Guasch’s poetic lyricism and haunting prose with evocative effect: 'And I fell asleep in that night that wasn’t yet fully night.' Beauty and brutality are woven throughout as two lovers try to find refuge against a Pinteresque backdrop of death and conflict. 'In the real world,' Guasch writes, 'something happened and I didn’t know what it was.'
The novel is a challenging read at first but eventually the carousel of forms begins to flow effortlessly. Guasch employs epistolary conventions as his narrator writes to Boris, a photographer-cum-friend-cum-lover. Yet, it is Guasch’s poetry and photographs that best capture the end of days in this unnamed country in the midst of something unknowable and yet eerily familiar.
The prose is pregnant with speculative uncertainty as paramilitary patrols lurk in the background and the unnamed narrator follows his lover to a secret destination through the mountains and along the coast. They meet a band of outsiders who have found safety in the woods, but the danger of death continues to follow them as society begins to unravel. Politically wistful, brimming with queer desire, this novel evokes an end of days which might not be far beyond us.
