More than a story that unfolds, it evolves and takes shape as events occur, situations accumulate, and the plot progresses, Who saves a lifeNúria Cadenes's work is like a darkened altarpiece that is gradually illuminated by non-consecutive panels. The structural choices made by the author—short chapters, a disordered chronology, and a tendency toward synthetic and elliptical expression—give the work more the feel of a complicated and elusive puzzle than an easily understandable story or narrative.

The starting point of Who saves a life, with which Núria Cadenas (Barcelona, ​​1970) has won the latest Proa Novel Prize. Her novel tells the true story of an escape network for Allied airmen, Jews, and Nazi fugitives in the Cerdanya region, in which the author's great-uncle, Joan Domènech, participated. Through the reconstruction of this relative's joys and suffering, Cadenas weaves a multifaceted narrative, recounting how some of the losers of the Spanish Civil War were able to collaborate in heroic actions that, nevertheless, had to be kept secret to avoid repression by the Franco regime.

"It's embarrassing, sometimes, to say the name of the opposite of evil, because it's a word that's... perhaps too overused, somewhat worn out." The word that The writer Joan-Lluís Lluís felt some regret in pronouncing It was, of course, goodnessHe mentioned it to me in an interview I did with him about his latest novel. A rain song (Club Editor). It is a moving book that tells the story of Ella-Calla, an orangutan who is kidnapped from the forest where she lives in Borneo and suffers a series of "calamities," to put it mildly, inflicted by humankind. The light in this story is provided by an elderly woman who, the writer explains, allowed him to breathe while writing; A rain song It's a short book, but it's the one that has been hardest for him to write, surely because it's based on a real event: everything that happens to the orangutan, Luis read about in a news article. We won't give away any spoilers; it's impossible to explain more of the book, but the moment when this character appears is important—that old woman who also gives readers a breath of fresh air, because she represents kindness. Luis considers it very necessary; he told me about kindness: "It's a very powerful weapon, because it can really change so many things. When we do an act of kindness toward someone, we fix the world a little, in a humble way, but, moreover, we do ourselves good." And yet, the regret he mentioned at the beginning: "I've seen it with this novel, saying goodness "It seems a little strange to me."

At the beginning of Who saves a life, with which Núria Cadenas (Barcelona, ​​1970) has won the seventh Proa Prize. A priest, Father Joan, is beaten by a former member of the Gestapo. They are in Organyà, inside the church, in 1950. The novel then flashes back to the previous decade, to the height of World War II, when the Pyrenean border became a land of passage and refuge. Father Joan, the son of a peasant family, collaborates with other resistance fighters—among them Melitón, Rosita, and Isabel—helping Jews, Allied airmen, and fugitives from Nazism to cross the border. This is the starting point of a story in which clandestine actions are intertwined with the moral dilemmas they can entail. "At certain historical moments, collective salvation depends on the actions of a few just and courageous people. Doing good, silently and riskily, as the characters in the novel do, demands total sacrifice," explains Xavier Pla, spokesperson for the jury. "Núria Cadenes has written a novel that is truly unforgettable."

With a subtitle that says "True facts or almost", Núria Cadenes has managed to find the thread that connects the thirteen stories. that gives us In the flesh (Now Books, 2025). Cadenas does not cheat or involve herself in deceptive terminology: she presents the stories as what they are, free literary elaborations based on real events, which can be oral witnesses or historical studies or ancient or recent chronicles. There is a basis of reality, but the writer manipulates it and works it and serves it as a work of fiction. She has placed the stories in chronological order: first we read stories set in the Middle Ages (about the plague, about Artemisia Gentileschi, about princesses and novices), and we advance among bandits who jump the margins to wars of the 20th century (like the impressive story of the Italian fascist bombing of the city of Xàtiva), dictatorships from here and everywhere, to end the day before yesterday: the last story is inspired by the terrible effects of the DANA. Of all this, there is the exception that confirms the rule: a story entitled "The Dice" and that refers to the universe of Victor Catalan and the Empordà landscape. A dissident voice, says the author in the epilogue, where she explains the diverse origins of the materials: exactly what interests her, as an author, is giving a voice to those who oppose the movement. Allowing them to breathe, giving them a framework of words within which they become people and cease to be numbers or historical data.

Núria Cadenes (Barcelona, ​​​​1970) still finds it hard to find the words to overcome the disbelief and anger caused by "negligence," she says, not saying tragedy, from DANA. The writer has lived in l'Horta Sud, Torrent, for over twenty-five years. Her house was on the edge of ground zero. that affected so many neighbors, friends and familyThat nightmare has become the story that closes his latest book, In the flesh (Now). Describe what happened during the 20 hours and 11 minutes before the alarm didn't sound in time. Cadenes contrasts the notarial description of what was happening in the offices with the dramatic situations that were being experienced on the street, where the water was destroying houses, sweeping people away, drowning children and elderly people with mobility problems, while some escaped by pure luck.