A compelling story which masterfully weaves poetic parallels between the effects of the climate crisis in rural Spain and one woman's turbulent emotional world
Ever since she was a child, Nuria has spent her summers in a small village within a protected natural park in southern Spain, a community reliant on harvesting cork from the oak trees that grow there. On returning there one year, she bears witness to a burgeoning conflict between two groups of people with opposing ways of envisioning the village's future. On one side, the locals strive to safeguard their livelihoods against the advance of root rot, a disease killing the cork oaks, while on the other, summer tourists from the city battle to preserve the natural landscape.
"Txani Rodríguez always knows how to make the ground shake." Manuel Jabois
"A piercing style that really lands home; the reader hardly knows what has hit them before they find themselves in the middle of a passionate whirlwind." Adolfo García Ortega
"A fresh and original voice that she has made her own." Jury, Premio Euskadi
"Txani Rodríguez's suggestive and carefully composed prose is crystal clear and laced with moments of poetry – she's certainly one to watch." Elena Costa, El Cultural
A powerfully evocative book which intertwines the changing state of a landscape with the emotional growth of its main character.
After becoming one of the surprise hits of 2020 and winning the Premio Euskadi de la Literatura with The Last Romantics, Txani Rodríguez returns with Root Rot. A novel that shimmers with a gradually building tension, its feisty protagonist is haunted by her own bad luck, her relationship with her mother, and the memories of an old summer romance.
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