The Time of Cherries

A Novel

By: Montserrat Roig, Julia Sanches - translator, Colm Toibin - introduction

Translated for the first time into English, this richly textured novel by "the shining light of Catalan literature" (Colm Tóibín), follows one young woman's homecoming, as she navigates love, friendship, ambition and betrayal in a Barcelona on the brink of revolution—with an introduction by Colm Tóibín.

"An exquisite portrait of old Catalonia meeting its newer version, now nimbly translated by Julia Sanches."—Times Literary Supplement

Spring, 1974. After twelve years abroad, Natàlia Miralpeix returns to live near her family in Barcelona, only to find it wholly transformed. Change is in the air and revolution is on the horizon. Franco may still be in power, but his death is only two years away. The younger generation write poetry, listen to Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin, and talk of communism over coffee. But Natàlia's parents still carry the hidden wounds of the Civil War. As their pasts, colored by unfulfilled ambitious and thwarted dreams, slowly begin to unravel, so, too, does Natàlia's startling secret—the reason she'd left Barcelona all those years ago.

A heady, captivating Barcelona comes to life, a city as smoky, gritty and troubled, as it is romantic and sun-kissed. Translated here for the first time into English, Montserrat Roig’s The Time of Cherries is a beloved classic of Catalan literature: a bold, glimmering, and startlingly timeless tale of a city and a people striving to leave the ghosts of the past behind and bring in the time of cherries—the springtime of joy.

Critic reviews

“A half century after it was first published, this classic Catalan novel is at last available in English. That The Time of Cherries has lost none of its immediacy over the intervening years speaks to the urgency of Montserrat Roig’s prose and the timelessness of her vision.”—Anthony Marra, author of Mercury Pictures Presents

“An essential book. Montserrat Roig, before her untimely death, was a shining light of Catalan literature.”—Colm Tóibín

“An exquisite portrait of old Catalonia meeting its newer version, now nimbly translated by Julia Sanches.”—Times Literary Supplement

“[The Time of Cherries] addresses serious subjects but is never overburdened by its scope. Montserrat Roig is brilliant at setting a scene, whether in a prison cell, a sauna, a Tupperware party, or in an asylum. A classic to add to your library.”—The Irish Times