A country with your name: Alejandro Palomas

A country with your name

A country with your name

A country with your name is a novel written by the Barcelona author, philologist and journalist Alejandro Palomas. His work was published by the Destino publishing house in 2021, after receiving the Nadal Award for his book One Love, in 2018. The theme in the titles of Palomas usually directs its compass towards family conflicts; However, the title that is being reviewed today is a love story.

Still, the affection that Alejandro Palomas describes in the pages of A country with your name It is not common, it is not about an intense and excessive love, nor of a passionate feeling, but rather of a serene affection and full of freedom, space, friendship, to know, discover and offer the other person the calm and silence they need at the right moment, to share dreams .

Synopsis of A country with your name

Of love in old age

To start talking about A country with your name it is necessary to make a deep approach to their characters, because, for the most part, these are the ones that make up the base of the work. The novel, then, is constructed by those who tell their stories. The protagonists of the work are Edith and Jon, two neighbors who live in a distant community, almost deserted.

She is a seventy-six year old woman, widow, who lives with his eleven cats and that he still feels Andrea's presence in his bones. Jon, meanwhile, is a fifty-nine year old vet who is given the opportunity to replace his sister Mer.

Like every year, Mer must go on a research trip to Antarctica and Chile. Meanwhile, Jon can take his place as keeper of the elephant section at the zoo. At that same time, an elephant named Susi —one of the great protagonists of the novel— arrived at the establishment.

Of love for animals

Jon forms a very special bond with Susi. At the same time that he loves her, he feels guilty for seeing her locked up with the other animals. Every day he sees her pain in her eyes, which only reflects her caretaker's own concern.

At first, Edith's relationship with Jon and his sister Mer is non-existent.; However, one day, one of the lady's cats gets sick, and she must take it to the vet for her evaluation.

It is then that Jon and Edith go from being neighbors to being friends, because she also feels a great love for nature and everything that constitutes it. She, this woman represents the wisdom of the years she has lived, a time that has not served her to look old, but to cultivate a dream.

The elephant keeper, for his part, learns from her his courage and his iron conviction to carve out a destiny for himself despite his age. In that way, Edith decides to tell Jon about her dream: to live in the woods and create a sanctuary for animals.

From love to dreams

All the characters in this story dream of something precise for their future. Edith has a daughter named Violeta. The girl longs to share her mother's long-awaited future, while she wants to be part of her life. Jon dreams of seeing himself reflected in Susi's eyes. like a brave man. He wants to be able to trust others so that he belongs somewhere, even a little.

Likewise, animals who participate in A country with your name they also harbor their own dreams. At the zoo they remember, they cover their nights with the nostalgia for distant lands and a freedom that has been unknown to them for a long time.

In his work, Alexander Palomas recognizes, like few others, human and animal psychology, and exposes it in his work with an open heart.

About the plot

While Jon and Edith live peacefully in the village, at the bottom of a great valley, the elephant keeper receives terrible news: after a year of Susi's arrival at the zoo, and since there were no positive results in terms of her upbringing and behavior, the management announces that the female elephant will be moved to a sanctuary, and that your services as caretaker will no longer be needed.

At the same time, Edith discovers another perhaps more disturbing piece of news than your friend's. The septuagenarian learns that, unfortunately for her, two poultry farms are going to settle in the vicinity of his village. In addition, and as if that were not enough, the council decides to restore the largest house on the lake to create a large hotel that attracts tourists and keeps the town standing.

Realizing that he will lose his shelter, Edith understands that the time has come to leave and put her dream into motion. The woman invites her friend Jon, but before leaving, all the characters must tell each other their truths and make their feelings on the matter clear.

About the Author, Alexander Palomas

Alexander Palomas

Alexander Palomas

Alejandro Palomas was born in 1967, in Barcelona, ​​Spain. The author studied English philology at the University of Barcelona, ​​where he obtained his bachelor's degree. She also completed a master's degree in poetry from New College, in San Francisco. Throughout his career he has worked as a translator, a teacher in creative writing workshops, and a writer of family-themed novels.

In addition to his recognition as a writer, another detail for which he is known in his country and the rest of the world is about a controversial abuse of which he was a victim. In 2022, Palomas denounced a clergyman for sexually molesting him.. Thanks to his courageous denunciation, other testimonies of the same nature appeared, accusing the abuser. This story gave Alejandro Palomas the opportunity to write a book entitled this is not said (2022)

Other books by Alejandro Palomas

  •   The time of the heart (2002);
  •   A pesar de todo (2002);
  •   little welcomes (2005);
  •   So much life (2008);
  •   The Hoffman Secret (2008);
  •   The soul of the world (2011);
  •   The time that unites us (2011);
  •   The sky that remains (2011);
  •   So long (2012);
  •   closed water (2012);
  •   between noise and life (2013);
  •   A mother (2014);
  •   Although there is no one (2014);
  •   A son (2015);
  •   A dog (2016);
  •   the two shores (2016);
  •   A secret (2019);
  •   A flower (2020)

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