Institut Ramon LLull

Heavy, constant rains flood pandemic Barcelona and send Sara and her family fleeing for higher ground. Her overdose on fatalist Anthropocene philosophy has her convinced this is the beginning of the end of the world, and unable to start writing her new novel. As they build a new life in the mountains of the Empordà, renouncing modern comforts in a dilapidated house, Sara finds inspiration in the story of Typhoid Mary.

Castells views both extremes of our society’s reactions to solastalgia, our panic and our denial, as mistaken. In a tranquil tone, she eases us into a reflection of the twenty-first century human experience, as Sara uses her writing to contend with the complexities of marriage and motherhood on an ailing planet, as she navigates a traumatic past and an anxious present.