My clavicle. A meeting with Marta Sanz

To mark the publication of the US edition of Mi clavícula (My Collarbone) by Marta Sanz, the Cervantes Institute in Los Angeles is hosting a hybrid event, encouraging the public to attend the discussion on this work in person at the Institute's California headquarters and simultaneously in New York, where the author will be joining via video link. In Spanish, clavícula refers to the bone of the same name, but it also plays directly on the word “clave” (key). Following an unexpected discovery by the author, the reader of the book realizes that something fundamental has changed for her, something very real, however difficult it may be to define. At the same time, they understand the mystery reflected in everything the author encounters, especially in women's bodies and, in particular, in those of women of a certain age. Mi clavícula is a masterpiece of auto fiction by one of Spain's most respected contemporary voices. In the book, the narration of the episodes is fractured, like the author's body, into a series of deeply moving vignettes that never lose their tension: imperfect, obsessive, and often hilarious. The difficulty of naming Marta's pain, or even locating a precise place for it, provokes a series of reflections. On the boundary between the body and scientific definitions and imagination; on the function of poetry; on our intolerance of psychological gray areas; on anxiety as a pathology of late capitalism; and, in the face of constantly discouraging headlines, on the perversion of the public health system. Ultimately, Marta's attempts to define something impossible are channeled through her strange and wandering pain, which manifests itself in curiosity, humor, and love. Above all, the conversation with the author will offer the audience a unique opportunity to open up to the lines of reflection that the author draws in a literally unrepeatable way, through dialogue.