Rosa Boladeras recommends a book that went from being prohibited to mandatory reading

BarcelonaThe actress Rosa Boladeras (Terrassa, 1972) explains that she discovered the book Nothing (Comanegra, 2012) by the Danish writer Janne Teller by chance. "I went to one of my two go-to bookstores, La Temerària in Terrassa, and I found it there. It's a very simple book, but it caught my attention when I saw that it had been initially banned in Denmark, Germany, and Norway when it was published, in the year 2000," says Boladeras. What most attracted her to the story of the title is that "over the years, it went from being banned to becoming required reading," emphasizes the actress, who this July received the Margarida Xirgu award for her performance in the play I Have a Forest in My Brain at Sala Beckett.

With Nothing, Janne Teller made her literary debut and sparked controversy in the Nordic countries. The book begins in a high school classroom, full of teenagers. The teacher invites them to live life with enthusiasm and, in response, one of these students tells him that he is convinced that life is not worth living. To prove it, the boy climbs an apple tree and refuses to come down while his classmates try in many different ways to get him to do so. Given this premise, the book was labeled as nihilistic, and some even saw it as an incitement to suicide – which is why it was banned. Years later, however, it was recognized with first-rate awards and enthusiastic reviews, and was also included in many reading plans in European high schools.

"Beyond the journey the book has had, which caught my attention a lot, the story it tells is incredible – says Boladeras–. If you give it a chance, it's sure not to leave you indifferent." Since its publication, Nothing has sold hundreds of thousands of copies, and has even been adapted for theater on Catalan stages.