El duelo. Cuando el dolor se hace carne
Gabriel Rolón

NONFICTION | 2020 | 456 pages

Grief is a dark, mysterious, almost inaccessible territory. An emotion that overwhelms us, takes us by surprise, and changes our surroundings in an instant. No matter how prepared we think we might be to face a loss, it will never be enough. When it happens, everything falls apart and for a period of time, nothing makes sense. Something inside us breaks; the world crumbles and shows us its cruelest side.

With these words, Gabriel Rolón describes the journey ahead of us in his new essay: loss. Yes, death, directly (our own and that of our loved ones) but also the unexpected (or not) loss of everything that keeps us anchored to life. The loss of a job, a partner, a home, the recognition of another, and even youth are all things that can drive us to grief. And it is there, in the breath where pain becomes flesh and sadness devours our words, that Gabriel Rolón shares his sharp, accurate, and always brilliant reflections. His new book is nurtured by mythology and music, film and literature, clinical cases and analytical theory. It’s an investigation that delves into the condition of grief and the mechanisms that the field of psychoanalysis, as well as art as a way of understanding the world around us, tend to offer us as bridges to get over an absence. Because grief—and this is something Rolón says as clearly as he does firmly—is an intimate “war.” A test, perhaps the hardest one, that makes us go face to face with what we’ve lost and what we can create from our losses. A wild battle that transforms us forever. And one that, in its relentless drift, drives us toward a rebirth that makes us more human.

RIGHTS: spanish PLANETA

BY GABRIEL ROLÓN:

Historias inconscientes
NONFICTION, 2014/2024
La felicidad
NONFICTION, 2023
El duelo
NONFICTION, 2020
El precio de la pasión
NONFICTION, 2019
La voz ausente
FICTION, 2018
Cara a cara
NONFICTION, 2015
Encuentros
NONFICTION, 2011
Los padecientes
FICTION, 2010
Palabras cruzadas
NONFICTION, 2010
Historias de diván
NONFICTION, 2007