NINES

(Les Males Herbes, 2017)
Novel: adult
Literary style: narrative
Language: catalan
Genre: short stories, self fiction

The twelve dolls in this book, real or symbolic, flesh or porcelain, each keep their own secret. They watch life in silence, from its shelf, from its corner of the world.

With the agile, direct and at the same time poetic style that characterizes it, Muriel Villanueva presents us with a collection of stories with a common nexus, that of an intimacy truncated by the presence of the other, of the one who looks, of the one who does not express, of which he is silent who he really is.

«Twelve powerful stories that move you. You’ll not leave unscathed.»

Anna Guitart, Tria 33, Canal 33.

«This one by Muriel Villanueva is one of the best stories I’ve read lately. The whole Nines book is good, but this tale is spectacularly tough, spectacularly brave, spectacularly memorable.»

Ricard Ruiz Garzón (about «La seva nina»).

«It is the first time that I read Muriel Villanueva, but it will not be the last. Not only for her prose, but because she has a strength and courage when writing that must be highlighted and applauded. In fact, I’d even go so far as to thank her for shaking it all up. I found this book fascinating, risky, raw and full of strength. A writing that takes us into a real, dense and palpable intimacy, with all the shadows, with all the truncated moments: the pain, the loss, the discovery of the horror, of the forms that abuse can have and the ways in which we can come to submit. Twelve dolls that show us how we can silence, but also how we can call.»

Inés Mac Pherson, writer.

«An introverted, rebellious and uncomfortable feminism: a feminism that does not marry anyone. In addition to a very well sustained tone, there are three or four seriously good stories.»

Julià Guillamon, Cultura/s, La Vanguàrdia.

«With the stories of Nines, most of them rounded, she successfully explores new possibilities and has sharpen her narrative voice.»

Júlia Bacardit, Butxaca.

«With her sharp writing, Villanueva has built a powerful set in which the different stories are intertwined and show us the different faces of the same prism. As the narrative progresses, which takes flight especially in the second half of the book, the author disassembles each of the pieces of a matrix to invite us to an intimate sphere in which the text travels through unfriendly landscapes: the bitter memory of sick family relationships, the difficulty of accepting one’s own sexuality or the shocking experience of an abortion. Nines, like almost all of Villanueva’s work, is a magnificent exercise in self-fiction.»

Felip Pineda, València Plaza.

«Muriel Villanueva is introducing us to a very personal microcosmos, but perfectly shareable from everybody’s personal experience.»

Maria Rosa Nogués, Diari de Vilanova.