Permagel

For the unnamed narrator of this story, the world is a threat to be endured. To protect the vulnerable core of her being, she encases herself in a layer of emotional permafrost. Living in Barcelona, she deflects the expectations of her family by seeking escape wherever she can find it: in the pages of books, in the arms of female lovers, in travels abroad, and in persistent thoughts of suicide. She is a woman who feels everything and nothing, navigating the pressures of life with a cynical wit and a desperate hunger for authentic experience.

With a voice that is at once poetic, raw, and darkly humorous, this novel offers an unflinching look at one woman's struggle for selfhood against societal norms. It is a candid exploration of the body, desire, and the freedom found in solitude. The story confronts the complexities of family, mental health, and the defiant pursuit of a life lived on one's own terms, asking what it means to truly break through the ice and begin to feel.