The book
An intoxicating story of collapse and survival
“A real literary 'tour de force' with a totemic protagonist installed in a place full of mystery.”
—Time Out (Spain)
“Loneliness is not the only character in the novel: it talks about the longed-for freedom, the rediscovery of one's own identity, sexuality or the connection with nature, themes that transform the reader.”
—El Nacional
“Carlota Gurt proves to have an indomitable narrative power.”
—El País
Mei is a forty-two year-old editor living in Barcelona. After years of unsuccessfully trying to become pregnant, and having grown apart from her husband, she decides to escape her crude reality when she’s made redundant from her job at a publishing house.
When she moves to the cottage where she grew up, hidden in a remote forest of Catalunya, she believes this to be the perfect opportunity to finish the novel she’s been obsessing over. But as she begins writing, or trying to, tragedy hits her and solitude possesses her, forcing her to face her past, an unsolicited present and a future that is adrift.
As Mei’s chance encounters and new relationships with figures from her childhood seem to keep her grounded, the forest and its inhabitants take over her as she fights to finish her novel and attempt to escape solitude unscathed.
The author
Carlota Gurt
Carlota Gurt Daví is a writer and translator from Barcelona. In 2019, she won the prestigious Mercè Rodoreda award for her collection of short stories Cabalgar toda la noche. Alone is her first novel.