The beginning of the 20th century: 13-year-old Conxa leaves her home village in the Pyrenees to work for her childless aunt. After years of hardship she finds love with Jaume – a love that will be thwarted by the Spanish Civil War. Approaching her own death, Conxa looks back on a life in which she has lost everything except her own indomitable spirit. "There is an understated power in Barbal’s depiction of how the forces of history can shape the life of the powerless." Financial Times "So vibrant, that it makes me want to take scissors to everything else I read." The Guardian The Catalan modern classic, first published in 1985, now in its 50th edition, with over 50 000 copies sold in the last two years in Germany alone, is published  for the first time in English. THE INDEPENDENT BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2010FOYLES BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2010