MATILDE E.

Barcelona, Mallorca and Paris: a fresco of an era of artistic effervescence, but also a portrait of sacrifice. A depiction of women who give up their careers and their talent for the men they fall in love with and how the emotional bonds change -or not- through time and generations.

Through two narrative threads the reader bears witness of the present and the past. The present brings us to the doctoral student Martina, who investigates the life of Matilde Escalas and ends up having an affair with her teacher, Jaume. The past transports us to the end of the 19th century, through which we discover the life of this unknown Mallorcan composer who worked with Isaac Albéniz, Eric Satie and other great musicians of the time but is best known for being the lover of Santiago Rusiñol. The reconstruction of Matilda's life escapes the historical recreation full of details and even the usual linear narrative, becoming a kaleidoscopic portrait of an era, where each chapter has a narrator who tells an episode of her life and, little by little, her story is being reconstructed and becomes, slowly but steadily, a shadow of a great name that would make history. Maria Escalas (Mallorca, 1969) trained as a musician and continues to make music, in addition to her literary work. Her first novel, Abans que el teu record torni cendra (Ara Llibres, 2016), won the Llança de Sant Jordi award (Òmnium Cultural) and was a finalist for the Sant Joan award in 2015. Her following novels were Sara i els silencis (Ara libres, 2018), nominated for the Best Novel of the Year award by Òmnium Cultural and Estimada Mirta (Ara Llibres, 2021). Her upcoming novel is A la seva ombra (La Campana, 2024), that has granted her the Llorenç de Villalonga/City of Palma Award.