A book that promises a new genesis

Victor Erice has been able to convey it delightfully with his latest film: closing one's eyes does not always mean denying reality, nor does it necessarily express a desire to escape from the world; it can be the gesture that participates in an absolute and supreme moment of revelation, of epiphany. The film is full of epiphanies and revelations. Book of Minutes by Gemma Gorga, recently recovered by Stonberg Editorial, which returns after years of being out of print, but more than a return, it's a true resurrection: the book now includes a cover and an illustration by the much-missed visual artist Pere Salinas, as well as the epilogue by the always cosmogonic Màr, a powerful portico that makes it clear that we are dealing with an extraordinary book. Twenty years later, it continues to be so. It's curious that these days there are people who argue that the new and unexpected purchase of an independent publishing house by the Planeta group will not mean a loss of identity: cases like that of Columna, the label that published the first edition of the volume with which Gorga won the prestigious Miquel de Palol Prize in 2006, but they demonstrate radical changes. It's necessary to toast with hope for worthy and necessary recoveries like this one.

A book of hours was a devotional book that became popular during the Middle Ages. It contained scriptures, spiritual texts, chants, prayers, and supplications so that each person could follow the daily liturgical dynamics. However, over time, it was enriched with other elements, to the point that many of these volumes have become fundamental to understanding the iconography of a specific period in history. By its essence, the book of hours invites reflection, contemplation, and dialogue with God. Interested in delving into the small, the minimal, the unnoticed, and the inexplicable, Gemma Gorga delves into this fascinating territory and creates not a book of hours, but of minutes, in which every second counts as if it were the final one, and she speaks with other divinities, or even with seraphim, and commune with the beautiful. Let no one be mistaken who thinks this is sanctimonious, because this is not it. In fact, the poet also provides some very sensual poems that dialogue with those of Teresa de Jesús, and accurate thoughts on pain, joy, and life.

Constructed from sixty delightful prose poems that function as enigmatic sequences of an organic whole that combine a reflective tone and emotional confessions filled with everyday wonders, Gemma Gorga recovers a precious book that flees from the predictable, that seals genesis after genesis after wonder.