Anna Punsoda's debut novel follows a young woman growing up in Catalonia amid her father's alcoholism, her mother's psychological struggles, and a family life governed by instability.

Told through a series of recollections, the novel moves between childhood and adulthood, tracing the narrator's attempts to understand the people who raised her and the ways their lives have shaped her own.

Punsoda sees the contradictions of intimacy clearly, almost uncomfortably so. There's the affection alongside neglect, tenderness beside humiliation, and the tip-toe loyalties that persist even when relationships become destructive. Her narrator is neither entirely innocent nor especially interested in presenting herself favourably, using her memory as the foundation for deciding her own capacity for cruelty, desire and self-deception, as much as the failures of those around her.

Originally published in Catalan as Els llits dels altres in 2018, and translated into English by Mara Faye Lethem.

Edition / Condition: Fum d'Estampa Press, 2022. First English-language edition, paperback. Very good condition, with minor shelf wear.