Neus Canyelles said at the presentation of her latest book that she always carries a notebook with her to write down things that happen to her and then turn them into literature, as she does in Waiting roomsa. She didn't exactly say this herself, and I was surprised by her measured approach, her precise and well-proportioned words. Because she can say that she writes as if she were being "dictated" without sounding presumptuous. She can say that she can't explain how easy writing is for her, the complete lack of effort it requires, without seeming pretentious. You read her and, suddenly, you understand.

It was at the end of January 2019 that the writer Neus Canyelles published her sixth book, The best vacation of my lifeAfter a hiatus of almost six years, the novel's protagonist is a writer named Neus who recounts her time in a mental health facility after attempting suicide. "She's a writer. She hasn't written anything for four years. She claims to have retired. She can't remember a good time since she was fourteen. She speaks of her life in a distracted way," says the report that the narrator reproduces in the book itself. Seven years later, in Canyelles's new book, a collection of short stories Waiting rooms Also published by Empúries, the psychiatrist's office becomes the setting for the reunion of two characters, two women who met as children and who have been scarred by the abuse one of them suffered at the hands of her schoolmates.

Where bewilderment meets lucidity: this is where the literature of Neus Canyelles (Palma, 1966) unfolds, who has just published a new book, a collection of stories Waiting rooms (Empúries). In one of them, she admits that she's not a big fan of promoting her books, but since this is her tenth, she says she's gotten used to it. "It's curious, though," she shares, "that the ten books I've written, all together on the shelf, don't even take up a foot of space. I don't know how to write long books."