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Beyond the Dream

About Catalonia

Catalonia, with a population of more than 7 million inhabitants, is situated at the North-East corner of the Iberian Peninsula at the south of Europe. Its capital is the city of Barcelona and its language is Catalan, a Romance language. Catalonia is part of the Països Catalans, all the territories where Catalan is the autoctonous language, which consists of more than13 million people.

The nation of Catalonia was a major power in the Mediterranean during the Middle Ages. Its long democratic tradition goes back to the 11th Century when Catalonia created the first feudal constitution in Europe –well before England’s Magna Carta.

The climate in Catalonia is mostly Mediterranean and really enjoyable. The landscape is very diverse with mountain ranges and hills, plains of limited extension, lovely beaches, enchanting woods and orchards full of delicious fruit!

In Beyond the Dream Catalonia appears in the last two chapters of the book. Anna, the main character, is Canadian but has Catalan parents and grandparents with whom she speaks Catalan. There are several Catalan locations that appear in the novel, most of them in the city of Barcelona.

Barcelona is a cosmopolitan city and very famous for its architecture. But it is also a city of discoveries because every few steps, every time you turn a corner, you find unexpectedly a wonderful building or a captivating small street or a breath-taking boulevard. It is a city composed of diferent districts, each one with a distinct and strong personality, each one rivaling with the others in beauty or hiden treasures.

One of these is Gràcia, a very busy and popular district of Barcelona. In the old days it used to be an independent town until it became part of the city of Barcelona in 1897. Anna’s grandmother Montse, whom the reader encounters in Beyond the Dream, lives in this district. It is an area with a lot of character, beautiful buildings, nice plazas and lovely balconies and windows. Not far from there we find the Park Güell. This modernist park was created by Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí. It is a tour de force of architectonic gardens with its columns, impossible curves and colorful ceramics. At times is difficult to distinguish the natural from the man-made. A thrilling episode in Beyond the Dream happens in this park.

In the novel we also encounter also the small town of Montvell where Anna’s maternal grandparents live. Montvell is a fictional town like so many real small towns in Catalonia. There are no descriptions of the town itself in this first book, only of the masia (farmhouse) where the grandparents live and the surrounding landscape. Both the masia and the landscape, are very charming and typically Catalan.

Please visit the Catalonia photo gallery!