BARCELONA DREAMING

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.