A mysterious photograph concealing a romance marked by war and passion. An epic love story intertwined with a contemporary narrative where a new feeling is born and gradually grows. From the best-selling Catalan author, widely acclaimed in both Catalonia and the United States, comes another fascinating novel, filled with drama, history, and emotion.
After a traumatic experience that deeply scarred her, 41-year-old Barbara moves into her grandmother Margaux’s apartment in Paris. The two share a special bond. Barbara, a strong and determined woman, hopes to find a fresh start in the French capital. When her grandmother moves into a nursing home, Barbara decides to rent out one of the rooms.
Her tenant, Marcel, is a quiet and discreet young man with whom she gets along well. However, when Marcel leaves Paris for work, Barbara’s peaceful and sometimes monotonous life takes an unexpected turn: one morning, she finds a stranger sleeping on the red couch in her apartment.
Without warning, Roger—Marcel’s 33-year-old brother and a photographer—has come to stay in his brother’s apartment. Unlike Marcel, Roger is carefree and irreverent, prompting Barbara to set strict house rules. But Roger disregards them, even bringing a woman, Laurence, from the bar downstairs into the apartment. Their living arrangement grows increasingly tense.
Seeking comfort, Barbara visits her grandmother regularly. One day, Roger attempts to ease tensions by inviting Barbara to a World War II exhibition. There, they stumble upon a photograph of a young Margaux, smiling brightly. Roger confesses that he had already found the same photograph in an old tin box in the apartment and was eager for Barbara to see it. Overcome with curiosity, they begin investigating Margaux’s past and the circumstances surrounding the image. However, their tension resurfaces when Roger once again breaks the house rules by letting Laurence use the shower.
As heavy snowfall traps them in the apartment for days, their initial friction gradually softens into late-night conversations. Without realizing it, they begin to recognize themselves in each other—their traumas and hardships shaping who they are. One morning, unable to resist their growing connection, they make love.
Through flashbacks, the novel delves into Margaux’s past, starting when she was only 14 years old. Amid the turmoil of World War II, she falls in love with Damien, a musician who teaches her to play the oboe. He gives her her first kiss. But as she walks home afterward, a photographer asks her to pose with a smile—an innocent moment that results in her picture being published in a Nazi propaganda magazine.
The consequences are devastating. Margaux’s family is branded as collaborators, and her mother is beaten by her coworkers and fired. As the Nazi occupation intensifies, suspicion spreads everywhere, including in Damien’s orchestra. When he participates in a protest with his fellow musicians, he is arrested, and Margaux hears nothing from him again.
When Paris is liberated, Margaux and her friends celebrate in the streets alongside Allied soldiers. She ends up spending the night with one of them, and four months later, she discovers she is pregnant. Just as she nears her due date, a miracle happens—Damien returns. He recounts the hardships he endured and confesses that only the memory of her kept him going. Margaux tells him the truth about her pregnancy, assuring him that she has no one else. Damien’s response is immediate: he wants to be the father of the baby.
Back in the present, Barbara and Roger visit Margaux, who reveals that she had her story written down in a manuscript. She shares that Damien passed away shortly after their marriage and that she still harbors resentment toward the photographer who took that fateful picture.
Following a tragic event involving the writer documenting her life, Margaux decides that perhaps her story is just one among many. But Roger disagrees. As a surprise for Barbara, he photographs Margaux and organizes an exhibition dedicated to her life. Overwhelmed with emotion, Barbara thanks him and dances with her grandmother, feeling closer to her than ever.
RELEVANT INFORMATION: What the Light Touches is a poignant novel exploring the connection between past and present, between a modern woman and one from the 1940s. Despite their vastly different contexts, they are united by emotions, struggles, and reflections that transcend time. Two parallel love stories, two different ways of loving and seeking love, bound by the enduring bond between a daughter and a granddaughter.
The novel is structured into three sections, each focused on one of the main characters: the first on Barbara, the second on Margaux, and the third on Roger. All set in Paris, though Margaux’s story unfolds during World War II.
A screen adaptation of What the Light Touches could resemble series like This Is Us or Dos Vidas, which explore complex family relationships and strong women connected by an emotional and thematic thread that defies time.
About the author, Xavier Bosch is the best-selling Catalan author, with translations in multiple languages, including English, French, German, Portuguese, and Bulgarian. As a journalist, he has won the Ondas Award and holds the Sant Jordi Novel Prize and the Ramón Llull Prize for his novel Algú com tu (Someone Like You).
What the reviews and the critics say:
“Passionate, beautifully written, and gripping until the end.”
– Casa del Libro
“A masterpiece—every page and every chapter a delight. It captivated me until the very last word.” – Amazon
“Reading Xavier Bosch means experiencing tenderness, precision, and deep emotion.” – Goodreads
AUDIOVISUAL POTENTIAL: TV Series, Miniseries, Feature Film, TV Film
AVAILABLE LANGUAGES: Catalan, Spanish, English.
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