EL CEL DE L’AIGUA

(Sembra Llibres, 2025)
Novel: young
Literary style: narrative
Language: catalan
Tags: friendship, love, family diversity, systemic, lgtbiq+, social commitment, neighborhood
Recommended for: secondary education


It is summer. Vila de Gràcia is preparing to celebrate its festa major, a whole new world for Quer, a rural girl who, without notice, is forced to spend the holidays at her grandfather’s house. There she will discover a whole neighborhood life, the art of decorating streets and the involvement of young people in festival committees; among all this, also, more than one unexpected love. Nothing will prevent her from having to face an unknown past: while she is suffering from the serious mountain accident suffered by one of her mothers, she will do everything she can to complete a family puzzle that was broken years ago. Immersed in this volcano of conflicting feelings, Quer will find a hidden refuge between the pages of In Diamond Square and, immersed in reading and following in the footsteps of Colometa, she will discover the framework of her own origin and resolve her identity conflicts.

El cel de l’aigua is an emotional and vibrant novel about the growth of a teenager lost in the heart of Barcelona. With the empathy and sensitivity that characterize her work, Muriel Villanueva offers us a story of love, empowerment and personal rediscovery woven with the echoes and reflections of Mercè Rodoreda’s masterpiece, still alive in our streets

«A very beautiful story. I loved how you reflected all the processes and conflicts of the protagonist and how you linked them to In Diamond Square!».

Aída Heane, writer and bookstagramer

«Muriel Villanueva, an all-round writer who once again shows off her narrative solvency and her control of the pace of the action to immerse us in a story of mourning during the Gràcia festivities […]. Those of you who have already read In Diamond Square will want to read it again, and those of you who have not read it, can go there with the coordinates well defined to enjoy it in a deeper and more complete way».

Tina Vallès, writer, Vilaweb

«This reading about fears, unforeseen events and abundant revelations is moving and can easily connect with young people».

Vega Poyuelo, Núvol

One of the best Valencian books of 2025 for the Magazine Lletraferit.

One of the twelve best Valencian books of 2025 for the Valencian booksellers.

«An ideal novel for young people and their world. Villanueva has a gift for grasping the vital framework and describing it with avidity. A love story as it should be and a gift for the Catalan language, in its variants, and for Occitan. Another success for Sembra Llibres».

L’Espolsada Bookstore

«Opening the door to a novel by Muriel Villanueva is doing so with the sensitivity of someone who knows the craft of putting words to the jumble of emotions that adolescence implies and, even more so, if there are hidden realities, losses and discoveries. […] El Cel de l’Aigua does not arrive alone but does so accompanied by fragments of In Diamond Square that here and there sprinkle what the protagonists feel».

Dolors Clota, language and literature teacher