Paradise Burns - by Pol Guasch (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

"Mesmeric and beautiful." --Colm Tóibín

"Paradise Burns is stunning. Tender and moving, it's the perfect novel for our current moment." --Eliza Clark, author of Boy Parts

In a rapidly deteriorating world, two best friends pursue a future worth believing in, in this second novel from "one of the best young writers working today" (Catherine Lacey).

When Rita and Líton meet at a party, they quickly form a bond that will indelibly shape their lives. Theirs is not an easy world: most wildlife is extinct and the earth is tormented by drought and floods; the last vestiges of natural life are kept under lock and key in a mysterious greenhouse a day's travel away. Like the other young men of the Service, Líton is frequently enlisted to put out the seemingly never-ending fires that tear through the valley; Rita lives perched on a hill in the Colony, where other men, including her father, empty an almost barren mine. Yet their bond grounds them. They navigate the love affairs, setbacks, and thwarted idealism of their twenties together, finding in each other a vital reprieve for their disillusionment--that is, until Líton, like other gay men, falls deathly sick.

Unraveling back and forth across time, and told through the voices, conversations, and letters of a tapestry of characters, Pol Guasch's Paradise Burns is a poetic, riveting exploration of an uncannily familiar ecological and existential grief, and a lament for an entire generation forced to inherit a world they feel unable to change. But above all, the internationally celebrated Guasch--crowned as "the spokesperson for a generation" (La Vanguardia) in his native Spain --has written a profoundly moving and astoundingly imaginative paean to the power of friendship: what it protects in a fallen world, and how, through love, it allows us to imagine a better one.

Review Quotes

"[Paradise Burns] seems certain to go down as one of the greatest, most perceptive novels about friendship to be published in recent years. Heartbreaking and true: a major achievement from a young writer." --Kirkus (starred review)

"Exquisite . . . Despite the bleak material, Guasch's novel feels genuinely hopeful, as the main characters stubbornly hold onto their optimism and desire. It's also far from sentimental in its piercing lyricism . . . The author distinguishes himself as a noteworthy prose stylist." --Publishers Weekly

"Paradise Burns is mesmeric and beautiful, a novel that moves like a camera, catching moments of exquisite and ominous clarity in a landscape that is threatened by ecological disaster. Against all the odds, the main characters find love and consolation, thus creating a taut and dramatic story." --Colm Tóibín, author of The News from Dublin

"Paradise Burns is stunning. Tender and moving, it's the perfect novel for our current moment." --Eliza Clark, author of Boy Parts

"A beautiful story set within a devastating world, reminiscent of Sarah Kane and Vivian Gornick. A marvelous book that carries the hope that friendship will be with us at the end of the world." --Alana S. Portero, author of Bad Habit

"Pol Guasch is one of the finest stylists working right now and I'm always dazzled by his gifts, his surprising prose, and the emotional power of his work. Paradise Burns is a world all its own." --Nicole Flattery, author of Nothing Special

"In the face of collapse, in the face of life's murky spirit, writing appears as a salvation. Paradise Burns is a novel that, in exploring our darkest paths, offers luminous company." --Leila Guerriero, author of The Difficult Ghost

About the Author

Pol Guasch is the author of two collections of poetry and two novels. His debut novel, Napalm in the Heart, which has been translated into ten languages, won the 2021 Libres Anagrama Novel Prize, making Guasch the youngest winner in the prize's history, and was nominated for the 2025 Lambda Literary Award for Gay Fiction and named one of the best books of 2024 by The New Yorker. He lives in Barcelona.

Mara Faye Lethem is a writer and literary translator. Her first novel, A Person's a Person, No Matter How Small, has been translated into Catalan and Spanish. She is a 2025 National Endowment for the Arts Fellow, in support of her translations of modern classics by Pere Calders. She lives in Barcelona.