Barcelona Dreaming

Starred review from April 26, 2021
Three dynamic characters wrestle with the instabilities of love and life in Thomson’s shimmering triptych (after Never Anyone but You). Amy, an English woman who moved to Barcelona for marriage and stayed after her separation, aids Abdel, a young Moroccan sex worker after he is raped. They begin an affair, which ends after a racist neighbor tries to prevent Abdel from entering her building. Nacho, an aging, hard-drinking jazz pianist, lives with his girlfriend and son in a suburb of Barcelona. After Nacho meets a renowned soccer player who asks him for Spanish lessons, Thomson ends their story with a crushing curveball. Jordi, a busy translator, befriends a neighbor who confesses to being haunted by a demonic chest of drawers. With seamless prose, Thomson affords an intimate glimpse into the three protagonists’ hearts and minds, and several peripheral characters intriguingly appear throughout. Descriptive flourishes, meanwhile, produce a consistent stream of wonderfully odd details, such as the cars left overnight in a garage that seemed “as if they were living things, holding their breath.” Throughout, Thomson gracefully ties together themes of longing, love, and the inequities caused by age and race. The result is memorable and moving. Agent: Peter Straus, RCW Literary Agency.

Starred review from April 1, 2021
Three people navigate love and heartbreak in early-21st-century Catalonia. The latest novel from English author Thomson is made up of three interconnected stories. The first follows Amy, an Englishwoman who meets Abdel, a much younger Moroccan immigrant sex worker, after he's been raped by a client. The two begin an affair that's brought to an end after one of the woman's neighbors assaults the young man; the incident has tragic consequences that upend the lives of both Amy and Abdel. The second section tells the heartbreaking story of Nacho, a businessman who lives with his girlfriend, Cristiani, and her young son, Aristides, in the Barcelona suburb of Castelldefels. Nacho favors the area for its "low-level buzz, a foxiness, a slightly sleazy cool." He spends most of his time drinking at a club until he meets the soccer star Ronaldinho, who asks Nacho to teach him Spanish. As he spends time with the legendary midfielder, Cristiani and Aristides start drifting away from him; the section ends in an almost unbearably heartbreaking way, causing the reader to question everything that came before. The final installment follows Jordi, a translator who forms an unlikely friendship with his neighbor, a mysterious and sleazy businessman who's convinced a piece of furniture he bought is possessed. The relationship causes strain with a childhood friend on whom the translator's always had a crush. The stories are loosely connected--a character named Montse is Amy's best friend, Nacho's ex-wife, and a publisher who works with Jordi, and a few characters from certain sections pop up in others. Thomson's prose is unadorned but effective--at one point, Amy muses of Abdel, "He made me feel younger just by being himself. Sometimes I felt younger than he was." He writes with a cleareyed compassion and never forces moments; everything in the novel feels organic. Thomson inhabits the voices of his characters perfectly; each section is narrated in the first person, and each perspective feels unique. It's a quiet and unassuming novel even in its most dramatic moments--fans of Thomson and of literary fiction are likely to find this trip to Barcelona well worth taking. A reserved but powerful effort from the accomplished British novelist.

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