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Home > Translation > The World Bookshelf > Books > This Too Shall Pass

This Too Shall Pass

Blanca is forty years old and motherless. Shocked at the unexpected loss of the most important person in her life, she suddenly realises that she has no idea what her future will look like.

To deal with her dizzying grief and confusion, Blanca turns to sex, her dearest friends, her closest family, and a change of scenery. Leaving Barcelona behind, she returns to her mother’s former home in Cadaqués on the coast, accompanied by her two sons, two ex-husbands, and two best friends, with plans to meet her married lover. Though she is haunted by both the past and the present, Blanca embarks on a new sort of journey alongside those she loves most, one of resilience and hope, teaching her to live on with the knowledge that even the most devastating pain will eventually subside.

Wryly funny, wistfully romantic, grief-stricken, and raw, This Too Shall Pass is at once an unforgettable meditation on loss and on love, and a timeless story of what it means to find a way forward and to truly, happily live on one’s own terms.

Author

Milena Busquets

Milena Busquets

Books

This Too Shall Pass

Milena Busquets was born in Barcelona where she attended the Lycée Français de Barcelone. She obtained a degree in archaeology from the Institute of Archaeology at University College London, began work in publishing, and has since founded her own publishing house. She currently works as a journalist and as a translator.

Translator

Valerie Miles

Valerie Miles

Books

This Too Shall Pass

Valerie Miles is an American writer, editor and translator who lives in Barcelona. In 2003, she co-founded Granta en español, which she now oversees under the independent publishing house Galaxia Gutenberg. Her first book, A Thousand Forests in One Acorn was published in English by Open Letter in 2014. She has worked closely with the Bolaño estate in reading through his archive material and preparing work for publication, which grew into the first exhibition of his unpublished papers, Archivo Bolaño, 1977 – 2003. She writes and reviews for publications including the New York Times, The Paris Review and El País. She translates from the Spanish and Catalán and is a professor in the postgraduate program for literary translation at Universitat Pompeu Fabra.

Published by

Harvill Secker, 2016
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Blanca is forty years old and motherless. Shocked at the unexpected loss of the most important person in her life, she suddenly realises that she has no idea what her future will look like.

To deal with her dizzying grief and confusion, Blanca turns to sex, her dearest friends, her closest family, and a change of scenery. Leaving Barcelona behind, she returns to her mother’s former home in Cadaqués on the coast, accompanied by her two sons, two ex-husbands, and two best friends, with plans to meet her married lover. Though she is haunted by both the past and the present, Blanca embarks on a new sort of journey alongside those she loves most, one of resilience and hope, teaching her to live on with the knowledge that even the most devastating pain will eventually subside.

Wryly funny, wistfully romantic, grief-stricken, and raw, This Too Shall Pass is at once an unforgettable meditation on loss and on love, and a timeless story of what it means to find a way forward and to truly, happily live on one’s own terms.

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