"I am no longer in love with you": with these words the narrator's partner ends the eleven-year relationship in Islandia (Destino, 2026), the latest novel by Manuel Vilas. Once again, after the great impact of Ordesa (Alfaguara, 2018) and being a finalist for the Planeta award with Alegría (2019), the writer born in Barbastro in 1962 draws on his own life experience to tell a story of rupture that leaves the protagonist devastated. Will he be able to pick himself up again? Will he be able to find love once more, having suffered two separations that have caused him so much pain? Although Vilas does not shy away from chapters motivated by rage and misunderstanding, Islandia is a book that tries to help the author relearn to look at the world with a spark of optimism.

If there is one complaint shared by all citizens, whether left or right, it is how cumbersome bureaucracy can be – also referred to as bureaucracy– and to what extent it envelops us like the sticky filaments of a spider's web. In his latest novel, Opposition, Sara Mesa (Madrid, 1976) rests on this suffocating reality, which affects us all, without exception.