Milena Busquets: This too shall pass, Harvill Secker, 9781910701072, L 9.99, Trade Paperback, (German edition:  “Auch das wird vergehen “, Suhrkamp, 19.95, gebunden)

The author Milena Busquets is Spanish; the Original was published in Spanish last year (Tambien esto pasara) and made it straight into all Spanish bestseller lists.

I read the book in English (This too shall pass), Suhrkamp published the book in German in spring(Auch das wird vergehen). 

Meet Busquets’s heroine: Blanca, forty and motherless, her mother just died and she is completely on a limb.

I am obviously not the target age group to read this novel but I found her immensely likeable and enjoyed the 152 pages.

Blanca has two boys by two ex-husbands. Sex, husbands and lovers play a big part in her life, she never lets go of them completely.  Raised by her very warm hearted, yet independent mother to be a free spirited woman, the bond between mother and daughter was exceptionally strong making her dizzy with grief. The monologues she holds with her deceased mother are hilarious and touching at the same time and apply to anyone who has experienced the loss of a beloved parent, no matter how old you are.

Blanca deals with her loss by having life affirming sex, with Oscar, her ex-husband and Santi, her married lover.  There is something utterly refreshing, uninhibited and loveable about her relationship with her lovers and the importance of sex and flirting in her life. The idea to escape from Barcelona to Cadaques on the coast, where she spent many happy summers with her mother and where they have a house,  seems the perfect antidote to her feeling miserable. Inviting her closest girlfriends, their children and lovers, her two ex-husbands and their sons to the sea side, living with this tribe turns out to be a bit more complicated than she naively anticipated leading to some funny, raw and sobering moments. 

"This too shall pass" is a charming, light-hearted read,  dealing with what shapes us in our lives:  friendship, love, death, letting go, parenthood, family, sex and the struggles of trying to live by your own terms.