The Time Of The Doves (also translated as The Pigeon Girl or In Diamond Square; [1] original Catalan-language: La plaça del Diamant, that is Diamond Square) is a 1962 novel written by exiled Catalan writer Mercè Rodoreda.
The book is named after a square in Barcelona's Gràcia district. It is featured in Harold Bloom's The Western Canon as part of a list of canonical books of the "Chaotic Age". [2] Arguably the author's most accomplished work, the novel has been translated into more than thirty languages [3] and is regarded as one of the most important pieces of fiction in contemporary Catalan literature. It is also a staple of the curriculum in secondary school programs across Catalonia.[ citation needed]
Set in Barcelona during the Second Spanish Republic and the Spanish Civil War, the novel pictures a young woman, Natalia (nicknamed Colometa, the Pigeon Girl [4]), and her struggles in life [5] as well as her relationships with two men: Quimet, her first husband, who dies in the war; and Antoni, her second husband. It is also a chronicle of life in the city at the time, [5] in a balanced mixture of psychologism and naturalism.[ citation needed]
It was made into a film in 1982 directed by Francesc Betriu, [6] and has spawned several theatrical adaptations, including a play directed by Joan Ollé in 2004 [7] [8] and another in 2007 adapted by Josep M. Benet i Jornet. [9]
{{
cite web}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (
link)