Her maternal grandfather, Pere Gurguí, was an admirer of Jacint Verdaguer (of whom he had been a friend) and had collaborated as an editor in the magazines La Renaixensa and L'Arc de Sant Martí.

[9][12] In 1910, Pere Gurguí had a monument in memory of Jacint Verdaguer erected in the garden of his house that bore an engraving with the title of the two most important works of the author, Canigó and L'Atlàntida; that place became the space for parties and family gatherings.

From that moment on, Mercè Rodoreda began to do literary tests, to get rid of the economic and social dependency that the monotonous married life gave her.

[19] On October 1, 1933, she began her journalistic career in the weekly magazine Clarisme where she published twenty-two contributions: five prose on traditional culture, thirteen interviews, two reviews, a short story, and three comments on political, musical and film themes.

[18] Rodoreda began to enter the literary world thanks to the help of Puig i Ferrater himself, who opened the doors of El Club de los Novelistas, made up of authors such as Armand Obiols, Francesc Trabal or Joan Oliver, who were also former members of The Sabadell Group.

In this place she met writers of that time such as Aurora Bertrana, Maria Teresa Vernet, and also established a friendship with Susina Amat, Julieta Franquesa, Anna Murià and Carmen Manrubia.

[15] Her alleged lover, Andreu Nin, was arrested on June 16 in front of his party's headquarters on La Rambla in Barcelona, where days later he was tortured and killed by Soviet police officers on the orders of General Alexander Orlov, in the prison of Alcalá de Henares.

[25] Although she had never participated in politics, she left on the advice of her mother, who feared problems due to collaborative activities with Catalan publications and some left-wing magazines in previous years.

[26] She shared a home for a few months with other intellectuals such as Anna Murià, César Augusto Jordana, Armand Obiols, Francesc Trabal and Carles Riba.

The problems in the castle arose because Armand Obiols was married to Francesc Trabal's sister and they had a son, who had remained in Barcelona with his mother.

[28] According to Anna Murià, Francesc Trabal was opposed not only by his sister but by jealousy, since he would have had a secret relationship with Mercè Rodoreda in Barcelona that only the two of them and their confidante knew.

[26] Mercè Rodoreda, along with other writers who were still taking refuge in France, had to flee from Paris in mid-June 1940 due to the advance of the Germans army going in the direction of Orléans by way of Artenay.

[29] For twelve days they were sheltered in a farm until the signing of the armistice of 22 June 1940, after they crossed the Loire River through the town of Meung-sur-Loire, which was completely destroyed.

[23] When Obiols was already in better living conditions in Bordeaux, Rodoreda became involved in a study circle dedicated to reading and learning the English language.

[26] From 1947 to 1953, Mercè Rodoreda was unable to cultivate extensive literature because just in 1945 she had begun to suffer from health problems, along with the reappearance of somatic paralysis in her right arm.

[31] Albes i nits gave her the third victory in the Floral Games contest and, consequently, she was named "Mestre en Gai Saber" in Montevideo in 1949.

In 1951, she also approached painting, interested above all in painters such as Pablo Picasso, Paul Klee and Joan Miró, and she made some of her own creations.

[37] According to some unpublished annotations that spoke of Geneva, Rodoreda revealed that during those years she saw writers such as Eugeni Xammar, Julio Cortázar and his wife, and Jorge Semprún.

La Perla del Lago was the title of a potential novel by the author that remained incomplete, and was kept in the archives of the Institute of Catalan Studies.

It was a location near the United Nations building where the author regularly ate, and from where she had a great view in the dining room on the upper floors.

[34] In 1958, she submitted Una mica d'història (A bit of history) for the Joanot Martorell Prize, although she did not win but Ricard Salvat did with "Animals destroying laws"; however, this novel was published in 1967 this time under the title Garden by the Sea.

[16] In 1959, Rodoreda began to write the novel that was possibly the best of her career The Time of the Doves (Colometa), published in 1962 as La plaça del Diamant for El Club de los Novelistas.

[39] When it was published in 1962, the novel was not exactly the one that had been presented for the Sant Jordi prize, but it had received an extension both in chapters and in corrections by Salas, Obiols and the author herself.

I worked blinded; I would correct what I had written in the morning in the afternoon, ensuring that, despite the rush with which I was writing, the horse would not run out of control, holding the reins well so that it did not deviate from the path.

[...] It was a time of great nervous tension, which left me half ill.[34] In 1961, she sent another work to the same award, Death in Spring, which did not win either, but rather it was Josep Maria Espinàs with The Last Landing who was victorious.

[43] Consequently, after the reunion with some friends from the time of the Civil War, she decided to settle in 1972 in Carmen Manrubia's chalet in Romanyà de la Selva, without ceasing to reside in Geneva, albeit more and more sporadically.

[44] Her friendship with Carmen Manrubia existed since when they worked together in the Propaganda Commissariat of the Generalitat of Catalonia during the Spanish Civil War, although they became estranged when Manrubio and Rodoreda went into exile in different countries.

According to Anna Maria Saludes and Amat, this abandonment of the Manrubio house was given by Rodoreda's need to follow a life in solitude typical of her character; fruit of the difficult coexistence between the two.

[46] In 1979, she wrote her theatrical comedy El Maniquí, which was premiered in the same year by the Brujas de Dol company at the Sitges International Theater Festival directed by Aracelli Bruch.

Later, made the leap to the big screen La plaça del Diamant (1982) with Silvia Munt in the role of Colometa and directed by Francesc Betriu.