Maria Climent

Who is brave enough to do the opposite of what they’ve always been taught? Three women, a mother and two sisters, and three ways of coping with adversity.

Without really understanding how she got there, Marga finds herself well into her thirties and wondering what exactly she is doing with her life, a question to which she cannot find an answer untainted by her usual acid cynicism. She is single, she works in a flower shop, and she misses – although she won’t admit it – the peaceful life of the village where she grew up, far from Barcelona.

On the other hand, her elder sister, Remei, seems to embody everything expected of a grown-up woman: she is married, a mother, and has a respectable job. But it goes without saying that her life is far from perfect. Needing to flee from her overbearing husband and an extra-marital affair that is consuming her, Remei recruits Marga to escape to an idyllic town in Tuscany, San Gimignano, where their mother started a new life years ago.

Their mother is a case apart. For years, she didn’t utter a single word. The doctors couldn’t understand the reason for her silence, but then, one day, suddenly, after her husband’s death, she began to speak again quite naturally, as if nothing had happened.

During their visit, the two sisters discover new details of their mother’s life that they were completely unaware of, an oppressive past from which it took her years to free herself, and a terrible family secret that, once revealed, forces them to face life from a new and inspiring perspective.

“At Home We Had an Anthem is a truly extraordinary novel. The style is commendable. The handful of subtleties and the depth of psychologies, vanities, and suspicions within it are, for instance, on par with the idiosyncrasies and intricate events found in Iris Murdoch's The Sea, The Sea.” El País

“She is one of the most original and fresh voices in contemporary Catalan literature. [...] The Ebro regional linguistic register, humor, and the female perspective are her main characteristics.” Eugènia Broggi, editor at L’Altra Editorial

“An absolutely fresh voice.” Sílvia Soler

“Climent knows that each sentence must free itself from unnecessary words; she enjoys writing because she knows how to do it, and, obviously, readers enjoy it when she does.” El País

“She has her own voice, this author: tender, funny, daring, compelling.” Eva Piquer.

 “Climent advances the narrative somewhere between drama and comedy, with a surprising ability to create Socratic dialogues among the three women, who take stock of their lives as if they were in an Éric Rohmer film.” Núvol.

 “With a bittersweet tone and using (once again) the delightful Ebrenc, Climent addresses themes such as the mental burden of motherhood, the consequences of patriarchal authority, life choices, missed opportunities, and the job precarity of young people. She does this with the sense of humor that characterizes her so well and has become her own hallmark.” El Nacional.

“At Home We Had an Anthem demonstrates that Maria Climent has burst onto the Catalan literary scene to stay. [...] Climent portrays this family constellation marked by secrecy, exuding humor and tenderness that once again smooths the gravity of the plot. [...] The best of the book is how the author plays on language, as well as her ability to sketch everyday life scenes with a simultaneously cheery and deep gaze that leaves the reader with a half-smile on their face.” El Periódico