Mercè Rodoreda Book Club Series: Session 3 — With Rebecca Simpson

This year, Backstory is launching a five-month Book Club series dedicated to Mercè Rodoreda, one of the most renowned Catalan writers of the 20th century. The series runs from January to May, in parallel with the CCCB exhibition Rodoreda, a forest, and is designed to introduce English-speaking readers to Rodoreda’s work through its translations.

Across five monthly sessions, we will read five key works by Rodoreda, guided by translators and scholars who have played a central role in bringing her writing into English. Each session combines close reading, contextual discussion, and open conversation, always in an accessible, non-academic format.

The series will conclude with a guided group visit to the CCCB exhibition, thanks to their support.

### 📅 Session 3 — March

### 📖 Garden by the sea

Original title: Jardí vora el mar
Translator: Martha Tennent & Maruxa Relaño
Publisher: Open Letter Books
Original publication: 1967

Garden by the Sea is one of Mercè Rodoreda’s most subtle and quietly powerful novels. Narrated by a gardener observing the lives of the residents of a seaside estate, the novel explores memory, desire, class, and disillusionment through small gestures and shifting perspectives. Beneath its calm surface, Rodoreda builds a deeply ironic and poignant portrait of human relationships and the passage of time.

Often described as one of Rodoreda’s most accessible works, Garden by the Sea offers an ideal entry point into her literary universe, revealing her mastery of voice, atmosphere, and emotional restraint.

### 👤 Guest: Rebecca Simpson

Rebecca Simpson is a translator based in Barcelona. Her translations of poems by Mercè Rodoreda (1908–1983) appear in Shearsman Magazine, Modern Poetry in Translation, AGNI Magazine and New England Review. Other recent translation projects concern the poetry of Mireia Calafell (1980) and Blai Bonet (1926–1997). Support from the Institut Ramon Llull (Generalitat de Catalunya) has helped make this work possible.

As a writer, Rebecca is the originator and author of various opera libretti, including Juana, with music by composer Enric Palomar (Oper Halle, Germany, and Teatre Romea, Barcelona, 2005), and Sky Disc, with music by composer Ramon Humet (Oper Halle, 2013).