Institut Ramon LLull

Beneath the June fireworks, Gona, a writer who has always taken refuge in legends, tells her daughter Amàlia the story of how her greatgreat-grandfather, Espiridió, got his name: faced with a terrible storm at sea, his grandfather swore that his first grandchild would bear the name of the land that rescued him from a watery grave. When Amàlia questions how he was able to return after being shipwrecked, Gona begins to doubt the veracity of the stories repeated time and again in her family, passed down like hand-me-down clothes.

She spends the next months searching to verify the story, in archives, Greek mythology, interviews with old fishermen, family letters, and seeking out an elusive black-sheep uncle. In evocative, precise language, Martín i Serra shines light on the history of coral fishermen, as Gona’s transfixing research journey takes her back to the 19th century. Her resulting book comprises the colophon to her inquiries, together forming a fictional compendium of the oral history of the Catalan coast and a love letter to its fading Ampurdan salat dialect.