Ricardo Boix, musician retired and publisher of inspirational books, tries to find his place in the Barcelona of the 21st century. It isn't easy at all, as his daily life is full of obstacles: annoying authors, a rebellious daughter, paragraphs without sense, a hostile dog, evasive women, depressed friends, an empty apartment and, above all, many questions.
This debut of Francesc Miralles, in blues rhythm, is the portrait of a city full of encounters and disagreements.
What could have happened if, in 2006, at the peak of the real estate bubble, two developers would have fought for a ground that was meant to be the biggest project in Barcelona? But, we are asking the wrong question. Entities and companies do not decide, do no fight, and do not play behind your backs. Behind every agreement there is people who decide, and these decisions are not always company result oriented.
So, we ought to reformulate the question: What would happen if two real estate developers became intimate enemies just because of a lot? What would happen if these lots were passing from one to the other like a ping pong ball? What would happen if one of these developers were a bank and its ranking would depend on the value of these lots? What would happen if the garbage mortgages and SWAPS enter the scene? And what if crisis enters the scene? What would it be of the employees of the above mentioned companies?
From an easy reading perspective, this novel talks about ruthless business men, low morality bankers, elusion, corrupt mayors, great sums of money, and speculation.
Jesús and Ponce are longlife friends. Ponce is a 100% single, while Jesús has only had one woman in his life, his wife. In a crazy night of alcohol and nice memories of the good old times they decide to arrage a football play as they did 20 years ago, Married vs Singles, when the singles team won with a humiliating 12-1. So, in his will to take revenge on the singles and to stick up for the marriage cause, he wants all the friends to meet again to join the match, but the chase turns tedious and exasperating. All of them have divorced! The novel revolves on the astounding humorous sentimental evolution of the main characters while following the hilarious organization of the play. Which team would you play with?
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In comic magazines, “rumble” is the sound of earth vibrating beneath your feet, when rocks fall down the hillside or when a volcano is about to explode, rumble!, rumble!, it is written in red letters with zigzag edges, but we use it to describe that feeling that bends everything inside you and you have to clench and bite your lips to prevent your teeth from falling out…
This is how the main character of Rumble describes that feeling which goes through all the pages of the first novel written by Maitena, the story of a girl that jumps into the swimming pool to discover that the bottom is much closer than she thought. She is twelve years old, is the daughter of a large right-wing Catholic family who lives in a well-off neighborhood, and the only thing she cares about is escaping to the street where she has decided to find her real life. Set in the troubled Buenos Aires of the 1970s, the novel shows the adventures and misadventures of the protagonist: the useless rituals of her parents, the miseries between brothers, the ambiguous relationship with her friend the bus driver, the boarding school, her experiences with hallucinogenic substances and so on: a journey of discovery of a teenager exiled by her own choice from her school, her family and her class.
Maitena manages to create a warm, naïve and also evil voice; the voice of a girl that cannot help but project her unique rumble.
After decades of silence, Elsa invites his son Isaac to a weekend in Venice to confess a truth that she has been hiding for years. However, a violent event changes everything and Serena, the violinist wife of Isaac, should suddenly fly from Barcelona to the rescue them. Then, the two women will face several confessions that will change their lives forever.
Agua Cerrada is more than a present story that runs between Barcelona, Venice, Serena, Isaac and Elsa; it is a story of secrets, lies, fears, pardons and desires.