In Diamond Square

Mercè Rodoreda · 1908–1983 · Spain

Originally La plaça del Diamant (Catalan)

Why it matters

Shy, naive Natàlia marries, raises children, and endures hunger and bombing as her Barcelona neighborhood is swept from Republic to Civil War to Franco's occupation. Rodoreda's Catalan masterpiece renders a whole era's catastrophe at the intimate scale of one ordinary woman's kitchen and square.

At a glance

Simple, interior narration, though its quiet accumulation of loss rewards close attention.