Benet Salellas portrays Francoist Girona in his debut as a novelist

GironaThis novel was born during a conversation among friends after a meal, inspired by the testimony of one of their mothers. It's an unknown, harsh, and anonymous story that portrays the inner workings of families who "lived well" under the Franco regime in Girona. It also marks the debut in the genre of lawyer Benet Salellas, former CUP deputy and currently leading the defense of Santos Cerdánand a finalist for the 45th Justo M. Casero Short Novel Prize. "I think we all tend to write what we like to read," he explains about the project's genesis. "I love fiction; I studied Greek philology before studying law. I've always had a bit of a cultured side, and I was challenged to try to write a novel. I wanted it to be anonymous, so if it's validated, I'll feel more empowered in some way."

The result is a novel, Nora's Gardens (Universe), which portrays the bleak Girona of the Franco regime through the voice of a young girl, has already climbed to the top of the best-selling Catalan fiction books in just one week. In 1949, still in the midst of the post-war period in a Europe trying to recover from World War II, a train carrying girls from Austria stopped in the city. The aim was for them to recover from the physical and psychological devastation of the war. On board the train, which was greeted by hundreds of Girona residents, was Nora Pichler Herz, who at only five years old left her family in Vienna to be taken in by one of the city's leading and most affluent families. While the rest of the girls returned home after a few months, Nora was adopted and became Eleonora Figueras Xifra. She would live on the Rambla in a prestigious apartment with one of the regime's most prominent families, but the family relationship would always be strained.

A Universal History

In the book, Salellas brings Nora's story into dialogue with Girona of that era, portraying the late Francoist period but also resonating with universality. "Everything I write is real, but it becomes a kind of fable, a Cinderella story, which actually addresses a generational phenomenon: that of women treated like servants," she explains. Toni Ferran Pichler, Nora's son, believes the novel settles a debt with all these girls and also emphasizes "the importance of telling the stories of anonymous people." Salellas and Ferran met through their children's school, and the lawyer was captivated by the story. And not only him. As filmmaker Isa Campo explained at a book launch—at the packed Auditorium de la Merced in Girona—the novel also has a strong chance of being adapted into a film.

As Nora tells her story and transports the reader to Vienna in 2025, Salellas takes the opportunity to portray different spaces in Girona's grayer past; although some have disappeared or are languishing, others still endure. "We can paint the houses along the Onyar River in colors, but there's still a lot of gray," she asserts. "There are some families in Girona who have always thought the city belonged to them." One of these families was that of Dr. Narcís Figueras and Concepció Xifra. In 1939, while the sounds of the executions of the defeated echoed through the Sant Daniel valley at the Girona cemetery, they built a villa near Sant Pere de Galligants. Decades later, they sold it on the condition that it be demolished and the site transformed into the Dr. Figueras Gardens. "I hope the book helps us, as Benet is urging, to soon have Nora's gardens," exclaims her son.