A novel about second chances
Laia Bové debuts with 'Saber volver', which tells the story of a young woman living in the United States returning to her native Barcelona.
- Laia Bové
- The Bell
- 368 pages / 21.90 euros
As a general rule, first novels don't stray too far from their authors' lives. There's a natural tendency to begin by explaining what one has experienced firsthand, not always successfully. Exceptions aside –Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë, Nothing of Carmen Laforet either The watchman in the rye field of J.D. Salinger– these first contributions to literature do not usually have much literary interest because writers are not born, they are made.
Knowing how to return, of Laia Bové (Barcelona, 1985), is one of those cases where fiction seems to run parallel to reality, to one degree or another. The book jacket tells us that the author lived for a decade in the United States, and the female protagonist of this debut novel is precisely a young woman from Barcelona who lives in the United States, where she works for a fashion company. We already have an important connection, leading us to believe that throughout the narrative the author will leave traces of her own experience.
Jana isn't living the American Dream, however much she loves the city where she lives, Chicago. She lives with her boyfriend and works a thousand hours a day, with little opportunity for advancement. So, when her mother, Arlet, calls her from Barcelona and asks her to come see her, she doesn't think twice and gets on a plane. She left years ago and still doesn't know if she can forgive her for the lie she made her live for so long.
The importance of links
But the novel also features a male protagonist, Pol, a young man who has settled in El Born, the quintessential gentrified neighborhood, if we exclude Barceloneta, which is apparently the most gentrified neighborhood in all of Spain. "Headline: 'Pol Vilana finds affordable apartment in Barcelona without having to sell his body and dignity on OnlyFans.'" In that penthouse with a rooftop terrace next to Ciutadella Park, Pol will regain his independence, lost after the accident that has confined him to a wheelchair. Barcelona, with its uncomfortable over-tourism and the unjustifiable inflation of real estate prices, is the main setting.
We won't reveal here what will bring Jana and Pol together, but it will involve Amèlia, the young man's actress neighbor, who is the third protagonist. The three main stories unfold in alternating chapters, until they intersect, and we understand that finding a second chance is often not about running away, but about knowing how to return.
The novel would work better with fewer explanations and a few fewer pages, because in trying to explain the way of life of a generation, it often falls into unnecessary details. Literature is made up of what is said, but also of what is left unsaid. But the narrative moves forward smoothly and is engaging. In a context where young people watch TikTok videos and listen to the latest music, Laia Bové captures the loneliness they truly experience—despite the apparent hyper-communication—and ultimately highlights the importance of connections and relationships, which make us stronger and happier.
