On 18 December the last event organised by the Centre for Catalan Studies in 2023 took place: a new edition of the Queen Mary Catalan Book Club, in which we discussed Teresa Solana’s The Sound of One Hand Killing (L’Hora Zen: Un crim refinat). We were lucky enough that the author joined us for the event.
After the readers debated their favourite parts of the novel and commented on the translation, Teresa Solana answered all their questions. These included how she started to write noir novels, how she created the distinct personalities of detectives Eduard and Borja in The Sound of One Hand Killing and why this is important for the story. Other subjects discussed included the mix of suspense and humour, and how cultural references are treated differently in the translation and the original Catalan version.
Further questions about Teresa’s inspirations and her plans for future novels concluded this interesting debate.
We would like to thank Teresa and everyone who attended. Stay tuned for more news about our next bookclub!
CENTRE FOR CATALAN STUDIES (Queen Mary University of London) 