Learning to Talk to Plants

Learning to Talk to Plants - Marta Orriols

Genre: Literary Fiction | General Fiction

Release Date: Expected 15th June 2021

Translated from Catalan

On the worst day of Paulas life, she lost Mauro twice. First when he announced he was leaving her for another woman, and then all over again just a few hours later when a tragic car accident takes his life. Not knowing how to even begin to deal with this all, she continues as though their life is normal - going to her job as a paediatrician, seeing her family, continuing their life without him in it. But most of all, obsessing over the life was torn from her and the woman who he fell in love with.

But slowly, in the home they'd built together, Mauros food is rotting in the fridge and all of his plants are slowly dying but as they do, Paula tries to learn how to live.

"Dying isn't mystical, Dying is physical, it's logical, it's real."

This story was devastating and moving, but with glimmers of laughter-inducing happiness when we can find the humour in the dark and depressing. It made us ask the impossible questions - can Paula seperate the anger she feels towards Mauro and her anguish at losing him? Can she still be angry at him now that he's dead? And how can she feel all these things at once?

A true-to-life, brutally honest account about the real complexities of grief and loss, and our individual journey back from it. Paula was a wonderful narrator, the prose was unique and almost poetic - it jumped and twisted like we were stuck inside her mind and her thoughts were steadily spiralling out of control.

RATING: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Thank you to Marta Orriols, Pushkin Press and Netgalley for this ARC in return for an honest review.

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