Praise for THIS TOO SHALL PASS:
"A best seller in Ms. Busquets' native Spain, the novel was partly inspired by the author's emotions after the death of her mother, Esther Tusquets, a well-known publisher and author there. This accounts for the book's sense of lived-in emotional truth, its deeply convincing, unconventional passage through pain." --
New York Times "[
This Too Shall Pass] has a heady, intellectual air, adding a twist of Alain de Botton to the novel's effervescent blend of Erica Jong and Pedro Almodóvar... Like a day at the beach -- a European beach, with cigarettes and espresso -- this novel lingers in the mind well after it is over, reminding us of the intimacy between pleasure and loss." --
New York Times Book Review "Busquets' tale is both poignant and funny, an astute exploration of the inevitable sea change that comes with losing a parent."--
People "Busquets' sleek novella set in her native Spain, feels like the book equivalent of a European art-house film: frankly existential, full of ravishing imagery."--
Entertainment Weekly "[A] summery, sexy, cool debut novel...light, profound, sensual, unmistakably European: this may be the only book about grief to feel like a vacation." --
Kirkus (starred review) "A literary tsunami...A seductive voice, one that wants to take a strong bite of life." --
Silvia Marimon, ARA (Spain) "A pure concentrate of emotion and intelligence . . . Unforgettable." --
Marie Claire (France) "The book of the summer."--
Vogue (France) "One of the most elegant books you can read."--
L'Express "A luminous and profound book."--
ELLE (France) "Therein lies the secret of this short and deeply intense novel: in the building of a conscience that has been suddenly expelled from paradise." --
Domingo Ródenas, El Periódico (Spain) "One of the most beautiful reads of 2015." --
AMICA (Italy) "An intense novel, with delicate prose, both touching and deeply funny." --
Vis Molina, El Cultural (Spain) "A praiseworthy and truly literary work." --
Antonio Lozano, Culturas, La Vanguardia (Spain) "[
This Too Shall Pass is] full of subtle wisdom." --
Carmen Posadas, Harper's Bazaar "This Too Shall Pass is an intimate story about loss and mourning, about saying goodbye, growing up; it's funny and the love for life jumps from the page. But mostly it is a declaration of love from a daughter who cannot forget her mother. Who doesn't
want to forget."--
Trow (The Netherlands) "A moving declaration of love to a dead mother and an accomplished balancing act on the thin line between lightness and tragedy."--
De Standaard (The Netherlands)
"Atypical, crazy, comical, painful. An original tale of loss that alternates vitality and grief, making them coincide, also in style: in the natural flow, without interruption, from the third person narrator to the first: you, mother." --
Il Corriere de la Sera (Italy)
"This is not a distressing tale, on the contrary, it is full of life and sex." --
Il Secolo XIX (Italy)
"A brilliant, lucid, poignant, bare and aching memory of a good-bye."--
Juan Marsé
"Intense"--
Femina (Sweden)