It all begins with a lightning strike. 

Poet and farmer Domènec Matavaques is struck high up on a ridge. His wife Siró is left living a rural life she never wanted, with her two children Mia and Hilari. Stuck on a farm high in the Pyrenees in Northern Catalonia. 

This is a very basic synopsis of Irene Solà’s unconventional, genre defying work of art, Canto yo y la montaña baila. From here the novel unfolds to loosely follow the tragedies that engulf the family over the decades. It explores the interconnectedness of life of all kinds on this mountain. Between the natural world and humankind. 

It is a beautiful novel. Solà’s lyrical language seduces the reader. It can be tender, violent, confusing. 

Although for some readers it might take a few chapters at first to follow the author’s flow, once found it leads you to a place that is brave and poetic and pure. For example, this is how she conveys the woods: 

 “.. the woods belong to those who cannot die. who don't want to die. who won't die, because they know it all. because they convey it all. everything that needs knowing. everything that needs conveying. everything that is. shared seed. eternity, a thing worn lightly. a small thing, an everyday thing” 

There is an air of mystique that hangs over the mountains. Perhaps the main protagonist is the mountain itself. Though wild mushrooms, lightning, clouds, bears, dogs and witches also share their stories. In Solà’s environment, everything has a story to tell. 

Filled with mythical creatures and dreamlike landscapes, there is a timelessness about the work. 

Is it a novel? Is it a collection of short stories? Is it a ghost story? Is it a family saga or fantasy or mythology? It is any of them. It is all of them. 

There’s no other book like it. It simply stands apart. 

Irene Solà (1990) is a Catalan writer and artist from Spain. Her writing has won the European Union Prize for Literature, the Documenta Prize for first novels, the Llibres Anagrama Prize, and the Amadeu Oller Poetry Prize. Her artwork has been exhibited in the Whitechapel Gallery.