"You’re pushing forty, you don’t have a steady job, your parents are ill, you don’t have a partner, and you long to be a mother. You’ve just arrived in the city of Barcelona after having lived abroad for many years, and you find yourself plunged into an existential crisis. This is the situation faced by some of the main characters in Sols, the latest novel by Andrea Rodés (Barcelona, 1979), which portrays, with striking realism, the lives of four characters in crisis whose paths intertwine, painting a vivid picture of the struggles of an entire generation. And although it could easily be read as a work of fiction, during our interview Rodés confides — naturally, generously, without filters, downplaying the drama and with a touch of humor — that the novel is inspired by situations she herself has lived through." (Alba Richard, El Nacional (May, 2024))
"Alone has the merit of portraying a rigorously contemporary Barcelona, populated by educated, well-traveled people who live on the margins of globalization’s collapse. A bubble of small troubles adrift in the world’s chaos [...] A novel that swims against the current.
[...] It has a realist approach — never picturesque, scarcely intricate, and entirely natural. This is the novel’s chief charm: it probes the relationship between parents and children with a certain apprehension — parents who support their children as they set out, and children who begin to realize that their parents will not always be there." (Julià Guillamon, La Vanguardia (May 2024))
A smart and funny portrait of a generation—are you where you thought you’d be by 40?
Lluís is a photojournalist and has been travelling around the world for half his life. After living in Asia for five years, he has decided to return to Barcelona. His father is in hospital and he shares a room with Laia’s father.
Laia works in an advertising agency, but she doesn’t really like it there, she lives at her father’s house and feels a bit lost.
Marc is a pianist and lives in New York. For the first time since the birth of his son, he embarks on an international tour that begins in Barcelona, where he grew up. When he gets there to stay for a few weeks, he goes on Tinder, where he meets Íngrid, who is a photographer and is determined to become a single mother.
Through the life of a charismatic set of characters, Andrea paints a vivid, relatable picture of this generation’s struggles, as a down-to-earth spin-off of Sex In The City set in Barcelona. With her signature humor and a deeply personal touch, this novel offers a gripping look at love, identity, and the contradictions of modern life, speaking directly about the messy, complicated reality of being 40 today.