Tot allò que una tarda morà amb les bicicletes
Everything that one afternoon died with the bicycles | Columna, 2013 / Libros del Asteroide, 2013
› One of the best 50 best books published in 2013 according to El Confidencial newspaper
The thirty something female lead returns to her parent’s home all at sea: single and childless, all of a sudden, despite having led a brilliant professional career, she finds herself joining the ranks of the unemployed. A hard-working, quick-witted university graduate, never in her wildest dreams did she think it would come to this.
The main character wonders what it was she hoped life held in store for her and how it is that she has fallen so low. Digging deep into her memories in a bid to reconstruct her own family history will shed light on many other questions aside. Looking back on her memories, the most fiercely guarded secrets emerge into the light of day, the gestures of affection she did not notice, or the minor wounds of a family that, although anything but conventional, is in the end much like any other.
Everything that one afternoon died with the bicycles is an enthralling novel about the burden of family ties and the first steps towards adulthood.
«A novel in which the family comes under the narrative microscope. Each stage along life’s path is handled with the fervor of an archeologist, the precision of the restorer and is held up in a new light, where love takes center stage. Readers will want to take up permanent residence in its pages.» From the foreword by José Carlos LLop.
«She confronts life as it is lived in the here and now, a snapshot of contemporary mores that explains why she is so successful.» Ponç Puigdevall, El PaÃs (Babelia)
«Ramis always has one foot in the present and another in the past in order to weigh up the facts, evoke the aromas of days gone by without succumbing to excessive nostalgia and write with passion and integrity on sensitive issues, drawing on feeling but also on the lucidity that comes with age to offer a great exercise in memoir literature.» LluÃs Satorras, El PaÃs
«Ramis has immersed herself in her past and, with a harpoon between her teeth, she pulls out hair, reopens wounds, guts dolls, discovers treasures (and other shipwreck remains) and duels with the most Peter-Pan-esque shadows of a unique but shared memory (…) Ramis manages to condense all of this in 223 pages with a controlled and sincere style that interweaves compassion, depravity, melancholy, love and pride, and which, progressively, fuels the curiosity and the engagement of the reader until the end.» Sergi Pà mies, La Vanguardia
«Ramis is a great author, a meticulous writer who gives the impression that she is improvising while keeping everything under tight control. She is able to transform a domestic scenario that could be part of anyone’s life into a wonderful novel full of humor, the hallmark of good literature. Don’t deprive yourself of this book.» Care Santos, El Mundo
«Everything is plausible, and not at all trite, because Ramis narrates with a difficult balance between humor and sentimentalism in a fresh and profound way, pure style. (…) Todo lo que una tarde murió con las bicicletas confirms Ramis’ evident maturity. It is her most mature book, the most intense and personal.» Ricard Ruiz Garzón, El PaÃs
«The author sets the economic crisis off against the use of memory as a means of escape, in an attempt to mine the mythical that lies at the heart of every family story.» El Confidencial
«A narrative master-class that strikes a perfect balance between the two eternal sides of the literary coin: the real and the symbolic. A beautiful novel of personal discovery.» Alfonso López Alfonso, ClarÃn
