The Thing About Melancholy
Elisa, who is almost fifty, is no longer the same person who, years ago, broke up with Zaro, the love of her life. Now she feels completely different: freer, more spontaneous, less afraid. And stronger too, because the support of her wonderful friends Mabel, Anacris, Susa and Noelia have helped her to pick up the pieces and love herself again.
All of the friends, except Noelia, are around fifty years old and face challenging changes like illness and loss, family and sentimental ups and downs, toxic relationships and, ultimately, all the crises that life has in store for them.
One of those complications involves Elisa and Zaro's paths crossing again within the pages of the latest novel that he has just published. And just how are you supposed to reminiscence about a past love when she you are a bookseller and the person who broke your heart is one of the most successful novelists? Luckily for Elisa, she has the best friends that she could ask for, and she can count on them to overcome any obstacle, no matter how painful it may be. But these friends also have their own challenges, and Elisa will have to lend a hand so they can also overcome them.
With a dizzying narrative pulse, with fluid, agile and exciting prose, Carmen Santos composes a brave and fun novel about destructive loves, loves that return from the past and unexpected loves. But, above all, about friendship.
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SPANISH | Contraluz / Grupo Anaya
SPANISH (Audio) | Audible
Reviews
“A multifaceted story centered on five contemporary women, each of them unique yet all deeply authentic. This realistic masterpiece is remarkably easy to read, thanks to the author’s prose—seemingly simple but rich in nuances and literary techniques.” Juan Bolea, El Periódico de Aragón
“Written in a lively, at times almost dizzying prose, and with a direct style—as if the narrator were having coffee with you—the author has ventured into a novel that is stylistically far removed from her previous historical works.” Ana Esteban, Heraldo de Aragón
"If you like thick novels and more intimate adventures than anything else, this is your book.” El Mundo
“Carmen Santos has felt comfortable as an author in very different novels throughout her career but now she publishes a novel more closely linked to her beginnings, with a loving and sentimental texture, an investigation into memory.” Heraldo de Aragón
“I found it to be a very fresh piece of literature. Elisa, the story teller, is great. Thank you to the writer, I had a blast! And I encourage her to write another story in which the main characters move into their sixties.” Audible listener review (5 stars)
