The moment at Shibuya crossing in Tokyo felt ordinary yet carried a weight that lingered. In a river of pedestrians that can swallow hesitation, a Catalan writer moved toward the far curb, catching a quiet turn of fate as a large building screen lit up with a girl speaking in Japanese. She posed ten questions she couldn’t fully grasp, a spark that nudged the writer to consider the inquiries he might pose as he approached sixty-nine. After a moment of quiet reflection, he began to sketch possible prompts: Have you told yourself the truth? Have you returned what was given to you? Have you shed what weighs you down? Have you respected the mystery? Are you encouraged? Have you reached out? What about theology? Have you endured hostility, loved, enjoyed light, and claimed freedom?
About twelve months later, those questions crystallized into a sprawling work titled Human Dance, released in 2023 by a premier Catalan publishing house in Barcelona. The catalog expanded with twenty-two of the magazine’s thirty-five pieces, not only presenting new material but also reissuing earlier pieces since the magazine’s 1999 start. The ten-book series neatly arranges the inner questions that began on the Shibuya pavement, with each volume focusing on one of the original prompts.
The central figure is a professor emeritus of aesthetics who resists simple labels. His method blends narrative, memory, essay, and at times poetic reflections on philosophy and art, weaving together diverse approaches. Cultural and historical references recur, turning every page into a crossroads where ideas meet lived experience. The writing travels across disciplines, showing how a single encounter can provoke a deeper look at the world and one’s place within it, inviting readers into a shared, meaningful dialogue.
Human Dance pursues that same aim—memory intertwined with cultural signs from ancient times to the contemporary moment, juxtaposed with imagined futures. The book traces the delicate line between fact and invention. Whether or not a scene featuring Aeschylus on a Sicilian island and its tragic end is fully recounted, the core narrative follows three school friends and their decisive exchanges across enemy trenches, inspired in part by inscriptions on a monument. A weighty critique of a higher power unfolds, set against the backdrop of either the First World War or a historical moment in 1918 USSR, presented with witnesses and a defendant facing a death sentence. In this sense, every story acts as a tool for addressing present concerns.
Memory itself becomes a tool the ten volumes employ to build autobiographical clarity. The arc traces a move from a childhood Catholic education toward personal agnosticism, a withdrawal from theological speculation while still recognizing Christian cultural heritage expressed through art and other channels. A political turn away from rigid communist ideals marks university years, coinciding with the late Franco era, followed by a stance against ideological dogma. The author’s cosmopolitan life—living in Barcelona and Rome, extensive travel—shapes a broad intellectual palette that elevates European thought and culture. Family relationships and collaborations with figures in wider literary circles highlight a worldview that reads nationalism as fundamentally European. The structure of each volume, often compact chapters, blends brisk and fluent prose, creating an accessible yet resonant form that invites readers to engage with current events through personal reflection. The approach suggests that any act of association or creation can serve as a doorway to understanding the present and finding oneself within it, a dialogue between tradition and the now.
Across this flowing prose, decisive conclusions emerge, sometimes carried by lyrical feeling and sometimes by precise, analytical insight. Subtle, almost hidden expressions invite readers to reflect on reason and emotion, contrasting with the drab routine of daily life. A recurring voice offers stark aphorisms: love grows when possession yields to generosity; friendship is a dialogue above all else; nonconformity often reveals more truth than obedience; no one is truly free, yet many strive to shape their own freedom. The work suggests that transforming one’s life dissolves walls between imagination and self, and that words can act as salvations, perhaps even redemptions.
The trilogy that began with View from the Bottom of the Sea (2010) and continued with Poema (2017) culminates in Human Dance, a volume that seeks to synthesize its predecessors into a single expansive work. It aims to justify enlightenment while sustaining a rigorous, transnational sensibility that places it among standout publications of the year in terms of quality, breadth, and intellectual energy.