Milena Busquets
Milena Busquets Tusquets (1972–) is a Spanish journalist, writer, editor and translator, and the daughter of canonical author Esther Tusquets. After finishing her degree in archaeology at University College London, she joined the major, family-run publishing house, Lumen, of which her mother was director from 1960 until 2000, when it was acquired by Penguin Random House. Busquets continued with the company for a short time as editorial director before founding small press RqR with her mother. She moved into journalism after RqR folded, writing for the magazine Lecturas and fashion company Loewe, and she published her first novel, Hoy he conocido a alguien, in 2008. While Hoy he conocido a alguien garnered little interest, Busquets came to prominence as an author in 2015 with her second book, También esto pasará. An international bestseller, También esto pasará is an autofictional account of navigating life and relationships in the wake of her mother’s death. In this first-person account, the narrator, Blanca, recounts the shattering impact of this loss alongside the vibrant and tumultuous life that continues without her mother. Relationships past and present – with family, friends, and lovers – collide, often to comedic effect, over the summer Blanca spends in Cadaqués, in the house she inherited from her mother. The poignant combination of grief and humour, love and sex, and depth and frivolity struck a chord inside and outside Spain, and the text has been translated into over thirty languages. Film rights were acquired by producer Daniel Burman in 2015, and Lucrecia Martel was announced as director in the same year.
Since También esto pasará, Busquets has published three subsequent works, which she describes as a shift away from autofiction and towards autobiography. Hombres elegantes y otros artículos (2019) is a fragmented collection of reflections and memories based on Busquets’s articles in El Periódico de Catalunya; Gema (2021) gives an account of revisiting childhood losses decades after the fact; and Las palabras justas (2022) is a series of diary entries from 2021 in which everyday impressions are paired with aphoristic observations on life, love, and writing. From También esto pasará onwards, all Busquets’ works are written in the first person, from a pointedly subjective and often playful perspective, and share the same succinct, precise and anecdotal style.
Compiled by Hannie Lawlor (Dublin)
Bibliography
Hoy he conocido a alguien (Barcelona: Ediciones B, 2008)
También esto pasará (Barcelona: Anagrama, 2015)
Hombres elegantes y otros artículos (Barcelona: Anagrama, 2019)
Gema (Barcelona: Anagrama, 2021)
Las palabras justas (Barcelona: Anagrama, 2022)
Translations into Foreign Languages
Arabic
وهذا أيضا سوف يمضي [Translation of También esto pasará by نمر أبو عرقوب] (Kuwait: تكوين 2017)
Catalan
Gemma [Translation of Gema by Lurdes Serramià Fruns] (Barcelona: Amsterdam Libres, 2021)
També això passarà [Translation of También esto pasará by Lurdes Serramià Fruns] (Barcelona: Amsterdam Llibres, 2015)
Dutch
De verloren vriendin [Translation of Gema by Arieke Kroes] (Amsterdam: Meulenhoff, 2021)
Ook dit gaat voorbij [Translation of También esto pasará by Arieke Kroes] (Amsterdam: Meulenhoff, 2015)
English
This Too Shall Pass [Translation of También esto pasará by Valerie Miles] (London: Vintage Books, 2016)
Finnish
Tämäkin menee ohi [Translation of También esto pasará by Tarja Härkönen] (Helsinki: Otava, 2016)
French
Ça aussi, ça passera [Translation of También esto pasará by Robert Amutio] (Paris: Gallimard, 2015)
Gema [Translation of Gema by Robert Amutio] (Paris: Gallimard, 2021)
German
Auch das wird vergehen [Translation of También esto pasará by Svenja Becker] (Berlin: Suhrkamp Verlag, 2017)
Meine verlorene Freundin [Translation of Gema by Svenja Becker] (Berlin: Suhrkamp Verlag, 2022)
Italian
Gemma [Translation of Gema by Sara Cavarero] (Milan: Solferino, 2021)
Passera anche questa [Translation of También esto pasará by Roberta Bovaia] (Milan: Rizzoli, 2015)
Portuguese
Isso Também Vai Passar [Translation of También esto pasará by Joana Angélica d Melo] (São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 2016)
Romanian
Până şi asta o să treacă [Translation of También esto pasará by Dorina-Maria Ivan] (Bucharest: Polirom, 2015)
Turkish
Bu da geçecek [Translation of También esto pasará by Seda Ersavcı] (Istanbul: Domingo Yayınevi, 2015)
Criticism
Brown, Joan L: ‘Milena Busquets, También esto pasará’ (Anales de la literatura española contemporánea, 42.1, 2017, pp. 231–34)
Bettaglio, Marina: ‘Busquets, Milena. También esto pasará’ (Letras femeninas: A Journal of Women and Gender Studies in Hispanic Literatures and Cultures, 43.1, 2017, pp. 178–79)
Topolska, Ewelina: ‘La mujer contemporánea como kidult. También esto pasará de Milena Busquets, el síntoma de nuestros tiempos’ (Lublin Studies in Modern Languages and Literature, 41.2, 2018, pp. 153–64)
Interviews/in the Media
Davies, Brad: ‘7 best translated books by female authors’ (The Independent, 29 August 2017) available online at https://www.independent.co.uk/extras/indybest/books/fiction-books/best-translated-books-female-authors-women-translation-novels-a7918326.html
De Montis, María G. and Sigüenza, Carmen: ‘Milena Busquets: “Si eres mujer y escribes ‘sobre la intimidad’, tienes que ser realmente buena”’ (Efeminista, 29 May 2022) available online at https://efeminista.com/milena-busquets-libro-palabras-justas/
‘Entrevista, Milena Busquets, También esto pasará’ (Para todos la Dos, 09 April 2015) available online at http://www.rtve.es/alacarta/videos/para-todos-la-2/para-todos-2-entrevista-milena-busquets-tambien-esto-pasara/3081592/
Fernández, Laura: ‘Milena Busquets: ‘No soy una pobre niña rica’’ (15 January 2015) available online at https://www.elmundo.es/cultura/2015/01/15/54b777f6ca47414a668b4571.html
Gil, Rosa: ‘Milena Busquets presenta su novela Gema’, Las mañanas de RNE con Pepa Fernández (18 February 2021) available online at https://www.rtve.es/play/audios/las-mananas-de-rne-con-pepa-fernandez/entrevista-milena-busquets-gema/5796338/
Manso de Lucas, Miguel: ‘Milena Busquets, escritora: “A partir de una cierta edad, tener amigos requiere un esfuerzo consciente y constante”’ (Nius diario, 13 January 2021) available online at https://www.niusdiario.es/cultura/libros/entrevista-milena-busquets-gema-amistad-creen-leido-quijote-15-veces-pobres_18_3105120236.html
Marcus, Sharon: '"This Too Shall Pass" by Milena Busquets’ (The New York Times, 1 June 2019) available online at https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/05/books/review/this-too-shall-pass-by-milena-busquets.html
‘Milena Busquets’ (El País) available online at https://elpais.com/autor/milena-busquets-tusquets/
‘Milena Busquets’ (El Periódico) available online at https://www.elperiodico.com/es/autor/milena-busquets-40241
‘Milena Busquets escribe una carta de amor a su madre con su segunda novela’ (Europa Press, 15 January 2015) available online at http://www.europapress.es/catalunya/noticia-milena-busquets-escribe-carta-amor-madre-pasion-segunda-novela-20150114143439.html
‘Milena Busquets presenta su novela Gema’ (Las mañanas de RNE con Pepa Fernández, 18 February 2021) available online at https://www.rtve.es/play/audios/las-mananas-de-rne-con-pepa-fernandez/entrevista-milena-busquets-gema/5796338/
Schifino, Martin: ‘Milena Busquets: También esto pasará’ (Times Literary Supplement, 27 November 2015)
Villanueva, Santos Sanz: También esto pasará (El Cultural, 16 January 2015) available online at https://elcultural.com/Tambien-esto-pasara