Pedro Almodóvar Wants to Adapt This Novel for the Screen

Fugitive encounters in foreign harbors, a cramped cabin, and the sea: that’s all the protagonist of “Boulder” needs to be happy. But then she meets Samsa, a geologist who gives her the nickname Boulder. For Samsa, she leaves behind her life at sea. Together the two women move to Reykjavík, into a small yellow house on the outskirts of the city.
Ten years later, Samsa decides to have a child. For Boulder, this wish unsettles the fragile balance of their relationship. She hesitates, but consents out of fear of losing Samsa. Soon she finds herself in a life that feels unfamiliar to her. She also experiences her partner as transformed.

The Price of Belonging

With the prospect of a shared family life, an underlying tension that has long defined Boulder intensifies: she places her freedom above all else, while simultaneously yearning for belonging. The closeness she sought at Samsa’s side becomes a burden. This raises the question for her about what matters more: love or independence.
Eva Baltasar writes with poetic precision about desire and dependence. In doing so, she lays bare the inner contradictions of her protagonist without dissolving the doubts about familial closeness. “Boulder” also examines what happens when consent to a joint life arises mainly from fear of loss. The novel is now available in German translation by Petra Zickmann from Frankfurt’s Schöffling & Co. Verlagsbuchhandlung as a 128-page hardcover for 20 euros, as well as an e-book for 15.99 euros (Amazon affiliate link). A preview excerpt can be found on the publisher’s page.
Baltasar was born in 1978 in Barcelona and has published eleven volumes of poetry, most of which have won awards. Her first novel “Permagel” appeared in 2018. This was followed by “Boulder” in 2020 and “Mamut” in 2022. The three books form a loosely connected novel sequence about the lives of women in modern society. “Boulder” was shortlisted for the 2023 International Booker Prize. In 2024, “Ocas i fascinació” appeared. (dd/pm)