Almudena Sánchez and Katie Whittemore with Monica Cardenas

Almudena Sánchez and Katie Whittemore with Monica Cardenas

Saturday, January 28, 2023 - 12:00PM ET
Event Location: 
Virtual

This event will take place virtually on Zoom. Click the button above to register.

Join the Transnational Literature Series at Brookline Booksmith for a virtual event with author Almudena Sánchez and translator Katie Whittemore to discuss and celebrate the release of their new book Pharmakon. They will be in conversation with writer and scholar Monica Cardenas.

Pulling no punches in its 150 pages, Pharmakon is the story of an explosion, of the moment depression blew up the life the author thought she knew and settled in her body. But Pharmakon isn't a sad book; it is testimony, written with humour and intimacy by one of Spain's most singular voices, one that deftly combines wit, eccentricity, and warmth. 

Far from shrinking from taboos, Sanchez grabs hold of her depression and dredges it for the whys and hows, excavating her memory, behavior, and craters of the mind: here there is infancy and the family home, youth at school in Mallorca and in the fields of Castile; psychiatrists who save and pills that bring her back to life; there are dreams, nightmares, and desires. And books, lots of books—some that serve to escape and others to understand what was happening in her head—because for Sanchez, literature is comfort, quest, and salvation. Pharmakon is an insight, from one of Spain's most singular voices, into the experience of depression and recovery.

Almudena Sánchez is a writer and journalist, with a Master’s in Creative Writing. With her first book shortlisted for the Setenil Prize, in 2019 she was selected as one of the best thirty something authors working in Spain. Pharmakon is her latest novel.

Katie Whittemore is a translator from Spanish and her full-length translations include works by Sara Mesa, Aroa Moreno Durán, Nuria Labari and Javier Serena.

Moderator Monica Cardenas is a writer and scholar. Her research explores the intersection of maternity and female bodily autonomy, with a focus on the representation of non-maternal women in literature.