Iolanda Batallé recommends a book to help you discover the wild woman within.

Barcelona"It's the best gift you can give yourself," says the writer, editor and director of the Ona bookstore, Yolanda Batallé, about the essay Women Who Run with the Wolves (Rosa de los Vientos), by the American Clarissa Pinkola Estés (Gary, 1945). Batallé read it thirty years ago in English, and since then she has not stopped recommending it, especially since it was released in Catalan in 2023 with a translation by Emma de Porrata-Doria and Botey. It is not a short book—it is almost 800 pages long—but Batallé maintains that it is one of those ideal titles to always have close at hand, on your nightstand, and read in small doses.

Pinkola Estés's essay follows the archetype of the wild woman from myths and fairy tales to extract tools for self-knowledge and female empowerment. "We are all wild women, but society has tried to domesticate us. It is written as an essay mixed with the author's experiences. Stories such as The ugly duckling, Bluebeard... I've read it six times, and each time I connect with a different story. It allows you to understand where you are as a woman," Batallé says.

Women Who Run with the Wolves was originally published in 1992 and quickly became a hit. The title was best-seller of the New York Times for 145 consecutive weeks. It has since received awards such as the American Booksellers Association's Book of the Year recognition. Pinkola Estés is a Jungian psychoanalyst specializing in post-traumatic processes and Women Who Run with the Wolves It was his first book. "Carl Jung has always interested me greatly, because part of him is dreams and archetypes, and ultimately all of my literature is archetypes. But it's not just a book for writers: I've given it away for many years in English and now in Catalan," says Batallé.