The Time of Cherries

"The Time of Cherries" by Montserrat Roig, translated from Catalan into English for the first time by Julia Sanches, with an introduction by Wendy Erskine, is set in Barcelona in the spring of 1974.

It follows Natàlia Miralpeix as she returns to the city after twelve years away, arriving at a moment of mounting political, artistic, and social ferment even as Franco's regime still clings to power.

Moving between multiple perspectives and timelines, the novel contrasts a younger generation's restless hopes for a freer future with the lingering trauma the older generation still carries from the Spanish Civil War.

Evoking a Barcelona that is at once gritty, troubled, romantic, and sun-drenched, the novel takes its title from a Catalan expression for springtime and the fragile promise of joy and renewal.