Miquel Àngel Riera

The purchase of an apartment on Palma's Passeig Marítim in the early 1990s—at a time when Miquel Àngel Riera sought to put into practice his ideas on pursuing happiness and making the most of the final stretch of life—serves as the central image governing his final collection of poems. Eleven years after Book of Beatitudes (Llibre de benaventurances), during the summer of 1991 between May and September, he completed The Apartment Overlooking the Bay, which was published a year later. The pursuit of literary perfection and respect for his readers that dominated these final years of his life—during which he also revised Poems to Nai (Poemes a Nai), Biography (Biografia), and Book of Beatitudes—led him to assemble a new edition just a year later, in 1993, containing extensive revisions. The Apartment Overlooking the Bay marks a return to the purest form of intimate, subjective love poetry, reminiscent of Poems to Nai. Here, the discourse addressed to "others" retreats far into the background; instead, the entire volume is governed by an analysis of the relationship between the poet's "I" and the beloved "you," Nai.