Irene Solà’s second novel I Gave You Eyes and You Looked Toward Darkness flattens chronology. Solà invites the reader into the secluded house of the Clavell family, who find themselves burdened with a generational curse after Joana reneges on her part of a deal with the Devil.
In this sliver of a novel, generations of Clavell women pass through, taking their place at the table even after their death. Often time collapses and those that are yet to be born play and cook with those who have long since been dead, and one meal unfolds over the course of the whole novel.
In this sense traditional cooking becomes an unintentional tool for conjuring the dead. It’s an effective method of exploring intergenerational trauma, as its ripples cannot be counted, the pebble that began it all cannot be found.
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Through the mention of revolutions, battles and Catalonia, decades of political turmoil rumble outside the farmhouse doors but are felt by all inside. Solà first distinguished herself with the equally enchanting When I Sing Mountains Dance, and her fascination with folklore returns to create another novel as beautiful as it is wicked and often filthy.
I Gave You Eyes and You Looked Toward Darkness by Irene Solà is out now (Granta, £14.99). You can buy it from the Big Issue shop on bookshop.org, which helps to support Big Issue and independent bookshops.
