This Too Shall Pass - Softcover

Busquets, Milena

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1910701076 ISBN 13: 9781910701072

Publisher: Harvill Secker, 2016

Synopsis

***Selected by Glamour Top 10 Books of the Year***

A lively, sexy, honest, and moving novel set on the idyllic Spanish coast, about a woman facing life in her forties

Blanca is forty years old and motherless. Shocked at the unexpected loss of the most important person in her life, she suddenly realises that she has no idea what her future will look like.

To deal with her dizzying grief and confusion, Blanca turns to sex, her dearest friends, her closest family, and a change of scenery. Leaving Barcelona behind, she returns to her mother’s former home in Cadaqués on the coast, accompanied by her two sons, two ex-husbands, and two best friends, with plans to meet her married lover. Though she is haunted by both the past and the present, Blanca embarks on a new sort of journey alongside those she loves most, one of resilience and hope, teaching her to live on with the knowledge that even the most devastating pain will eventually subside.

Wryly funny, wistfully romantic, grief-stricken, and raw, This Too Shall Pass is at once an unforgettable meditation on loss and on love, and a timeless story of what it means to find a way forward and to truly, happily live on one’s own terms.

About this title

Review

"Should be the hit of the summer. Couldn't stop. Fun, raw, sexy, true." (Matt Haig)

"A beautiful novel about life, death, love and sex. This Too Shall Pass is a funny, sexy, fiercely clever novel that takes us into the heart of what it means to love and how we must try to find a way to live even when we are brought low by grief." (Cathy Rentzenbrink The Pool)

"Like a day at the beach - a European beach, with cigarettes and espresso - this novel lingers in the mind well after it is over, reminding us of the intimacy between pleasure and loss" (New York Times Book Review)

"Unforgettable" (Marie Claire)

"Funny, philosphical and a delight to read." (Stylist)

"Spanish literature has found its phenomenon" (Le Figaro Littéraire (France))

"Full of subtle wisdom" (Carmen Posadas Harper's Bazaar)

"[A] summery, sexy, cool debut novel...light, profound, sensual, unmistakably European: this may be the only book about grief to feel like a vacation." (Kirkus Review, *Starred*)

"Busquets has a compelling, original voice. [She] is a brilliant showstopper – just as you're laughing at Blanca's breezy sarcasm, her expletive-infested brio, she catches your throat with a thought so disarmingly sad it turns the room grey. The worst thing about the death of a mother, she says, is not that you won't ever see her face again but you will never again be seen through her eyes. Therein lies the true loneliness of losing a parent!" (Big Issue)

"Funny, raw, honest." (Psychologies)

Book Description

A lively, sexy, honest, and moving novel set on the idyllic Spanish coast, about a woman facing life in her forties

About this edition

• Publisher: Harvill Secker
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 1910701076
• ISBN 13: 9781910701072
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 160