Winner of the 2015 Ramon Llull Novel Award for Catalan literature and translated into eight languages, author Xavier Bosch’s tender story follows a daughter’s search for her mother’s lost love…and the love she discovers along the way.

Paris, 1981

Content with her peaceful family life in Barcelona, Paulina Homs came to Paris for her cousin’s wedding—nothing more. But when she meets free-spirited gallery owner Jean-Pierre Zanardi, it’s as though fate, not circumstance, has brought them together.

They only have five days before Paulina returns home. Five days that will reshape their lives forever.

Barcelona, the 2000s

Gina lost her mom when she was just nine years old. Ever since, she’s longed to discover who Paulina really was—not only as a mother, but as a person apart from her husband and daughter. Someone with a life all her own.

Those five days in Paris encompass the life Gina has always wondered about. And Jean-Pierre is the key.

Through old memories, new discoveries, and the testimony of people who were there, Gina begins to unravel the mystery that is her mother. And she comes to understand how deeply love is rooted—and how far it can grow.

Xavier Bosch is a celebrated Catalan-Spanish writer born in Barcelona. The author of ten novels and two short-story collections, Bosch has been honored with bestselling book of the year six separate times in his home country of Spain. He’s also won two of the most prestigious prizes in Catalan literature: the Sant Jordi Award (2009) and the Ramon Llull Award (2015). His novel Algú com tu has been translated into seven languages.

In addition to his creative writing work, Bosch is a respected journalist with a long and storied career. He has starred on radio and television, created several successful audiovisual formats, and worked as a newspaper editor. A sports specialist, Bosch is one of the most influential writers on FC Barcelona. The author has also directed two documentaries on classical music and serves as a full member of the Acadèmia de la Llengua Catalana. For more information, please visit http://www.xavierbosch.com.

Samantha Mateo is a translator from Chicago. She holds an MA in humanities from the University of Chicago, where she specialized in Catalan and translation studies, and a BA in linguistics from Columbia University. She currently works in academic publishing. In 2022, Samantha was an American Literary Translators Association (ALTA) Emerging Translator mentee for Catalan. Her translations have appeared in the Denver Quarterly literary journal and Granta magazine.