"Summers also serve to move forward with what you have pending."

BarcelonaKoufonísia is the Greek island where Meritxell Falgueras, sommelier and communicator, finished her latest book, Women of wine, which will be published in October. To begin with, she doesn't particularly like islands; she prefers to be connected. The feeling of being physically isolated stresses her out. She also lived alone among vineyards in Italy for a long time and finds it difficult to return to nature: "I suffer from hyperactivity; I'm overwhelmed by lack of movement. I'm a city person, very social, surrounded by people in my comfort zone, but summers are also a good time to move forward with what you have pending." Perhaps that's why she has such fond memories of last summer, two weeks with her partner, the journalist and writer Daniel Vázquez Sallés, on an island where barely 400 people live. Everything went at a different pace; they traveled on foot and dedicated time to themselves, to writing, reading, and enjoying themselves. Exceptionally, they had time to be alone; she coincided with the fact that those days Meritxell's children were with their father: they were the only days they were away, on vacation.

At first, she was hesitant to go, especially since it was where Daniel had been writing about his son's death, but in retrospect, the island did them both a world of good. "I wasn't sure it was a good idea, but Daniel insisted, and we both had to finish our books; it might be an opportunity to do so." She thought being in a bungalow with the ocean in the background might be a good place to do so. Now she's convinced that everything can be cured with salt water, sea water, or tears.

She says that when she writes so many hours a day, she tries to balance the time between writing and reading: "Reading nourishes my writing; I see things I like and think about what I could write." She always reads more in the summer and is especially excited to go on vacation with a pile of books. She brought the latest Murakami and did an intensive course on Theodor Kallifatides, the Greek-Sudden author who has captivated so many Catalan readers. Coincidentally, they became friends with a theater director who really likes Kallifatides' work.

"I'm in love with Greco-Latin culture, its ruins, and Greek gastronomy: the olives, the goat cheese, the "heada," the way they cook the lamb, the spices, the wines... I feel right at home," she admits. She finds many similarities in this Mediterranean character and the desire to have a good time. To the point that she feels that at some point in her life she could live in Greece.