Editing Mercè Rodoreda (section)

====Geneva====
In 1954, Rodoreda and Obiols moved into an apartment at 19 Violet street, in a bourgeois neighborhood in the city of Geneva. In this city, she always felt exiled and even recognized that Geneva "is a very boring city, suitable for writing".<ref name=":13">{{Cite web |title=L'eclosió literària Ginebra |url=http://www.raco.cat/index.php/RevistaGirona/article/view/118584/151769 }}</ref> Shortly after, Obiols had to move to [[Vienna]] for work reasons. That same year, Rodoreda made a trip to Barcelona to attend the wedding of her son, Jordi Gurguí i Rodoreda.<ref name=":12" />

{{blockquote|I live in a very nice studio, above a park, with a seven-story house in front of it, but quite far away. On the one hand a piece of lake, and on the other, the [[Salève]]. From my terrace, you can see a pretty ugly mountain, because it has many bold spots and it looks like it was sick. When the day is clear, I see the top of [[Mont Blanc]].<ref name=":13"/>|Mercè Rodoreda, interview by [[Baltasar Porcel]] to Mercè Rodoreda (1972)}}

In 1956, she won the Joan Maragall Essay Prize with ''Three Sonnets and a Song'' that was published in the literary supplement ''La Gaceta de Letras de La Nova Revista (1955-1958)''.<ref>Rodoreda Gurguí, Mercè "''Tres sonets i una cançó''". La Nova Revista, number. 6, Juliol-Agost 1956, page. 21-22</ref> Likewise, for her story ''Carnaval'' she was awarded the Joan Santamaria Prize in Barcelona that same year.<ref name=":12" />

In 1958 the book of short stories written under the name of ''Twenty-two short stories'' was published which, a year earlier, had received the prestigious Victor Català Prize.<ref name=":14">{{Cite web |title=Chronology - 1954-1959 |url=http://www.mercerodoreda.cat/gc/ViewPage.action?siteNodeId=313&languageId=1&contentId=-1 |url-status=dead |access-date=2021-07-26 |archive-date=2010-09-30 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100930130729/http://www.mercerodoreda.cat/gc/ViewPage.action?siteNodeId=313&languageId=1&contentId=-1 }}</ref> Some of these stories had already been published in [[Mexico]] during her exile in France, while others were unpublished. As the author confessed, this book came from a technical crisis that led to an unequal literary level among the various stories, although they were tied by a thematic unit.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Arnau |first=Carme |date=1974 |title=Una segona edició "en veu baixa": 'Vint-i-dos contes', de Mercè Rodoreda |url=https://raco.cat/index.php/Marges/article/view/93593 |journal=Marges, Els: Revista de llengua i literatura |pages=105–114 |issn=2339-8256}}</ref>

According to some unpublished annotations that spoke of Geneva, Rodoreda revealed that during those years she saw writers such as [[Eugeni Xammar]], [[Julio Cortázar]] and his wife, and [[Jorge Semprún]].<ref name=":13" />

During her long stay in Geneva, she created a garden that she would later replicate in [[Romanyà de la Selva]]. The many flowers that surrounded her served as inspiration to portray the flowers that would end up making up ''Real Flowers'' within ''Viatges i Flors'', along with the trips that she would write in Romanyà;<ref name=":13" /> however, this book was not published until 1980.

''La Perla del Lago'' was the title of a potential novel by the author that remained incomplete, and was kept in the archives of the Institute of Catalan Studies. The title is the name of a restaurant on the shore of [[Lake Geneva]] in a corner of Geneva that she frequented. It was a location near the United Nations building where the author regularly ate, and from where she had a great view in the dining room on the upper floors. As described in the prologue of ''Broken Mirror'', the eyes of the protagonist Teresa Goday de Valldaura were the same as the lady of Lemán.<ref name=":13" />

In 1958, she submitted ''Una mica d'història'' (''A bit of history'') for the [[Premi Sant Jordi de novel·la|Joanot Martorell Prize]], although she did not win but Ricard Salvat did with "''Animals destroying laws''"; however, this novel was published in 1967 this time under the title ''Garden by the Sea''. She also wrote the short story ''Ron Negrita'' for the volume "''The 7 Deadly Sins Seen by 21 Storytellers''", although it would later become part of the volume "''It looked like silk and other stories''". From 1958 onwards, and without breaking up with Rodoreda, Obiols maintained a relationship with a woman in Geneva until his death.<ref name=":12" />

In 1959, Rodoreda began to write the novel that was possibly the best of her career ''[[The Time of the Doves]]'' (''Colometa''), published in 1962 as ''[[La plaça del Diamant]]'' for ''El Club de los Novelistas''.<ref name=":14" /><ref name=":15">{{Cite web |title=Chronology - 1960-1970 |url=http://www.mercerodoreda.cat/gc/ViewPage.action?siteNodeId=314&languageId=1&contentId=-1 |url-status=dead |access-date=2021-07-27 |archive-date=2010-09-30 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100930130747/http://www.mercerodoreda.cat/gc/ViewPage.action?siteNodeId=314&languageId=1&contentId=-1 }}</ref> In 1960, she submitted the novel to the ''[[Premi Sant Jordi de novel·la]]'', previously known as the Joanot Martorell Prize, however, she did not win but the Enric Massó y Urgellès prize was won with her novel ''Vivir es no facil'' (''Living is not easy''). Joan Fuster also sent her to 'The Novelists Club', which at that time was run by [[Joan Sales i Vallès|Joan Sales]]. Sales was delighted by the novel and started a correspondence with Rodoreda.<ref name=":15" /> From that moment, she found in the Editor Club a space where she could pour her literary work, where Salas was a co-founder.<ref>{{Cite web |title=''Rodoreda, Mercè {{!}} Corpus Literari Ciutat de Barcelona'' |date=8 May 2020 |url=https://www.joanducros.net/rodoreda-merce/ |access-date=2021-07-27 |language=ca}}</ref> When it was published in 1962, the novel was not exactly the one that had been presented for the Sant Jordi prize, but it had received an extension both in chapters and in corrections by Salas, Obiols and the author herself.<ref>{{cite video |people = Josep M. Gurguí, Margarida Puig, Isabel Parés, Montserrat Casals, Núria Folch, Pere Gimferrer, Josep Maria Castellet |year = 2008 |title=''Mercè Rodoreda, vida secreta'' |medium = Producció Televisiva |publisher = [[TV3 (Catalonia)|TV3]] |time = 00:20:28 - 00:20:52 }}<!-- |director= Joan Úbeda --></ref>

{{blockquote|Explaining the genesis of ''La Plaza del Diamante'' might be interesting, but is it possible to explain how a novel is formed, what impulses provoke it, how strong a will does it make it continue, that what has been done has to end with a struggle? Started easily? Would it be enough to say that I was thinking of it in Geneva looking at the Salève mountain or walking through La Perla del Lago? [...] I wrote it feverishly, as if every working day was the last of my life. I worked blinded; I would correct what I had written in the morning in the afternoon, ensuring that, despite the rush with which I was writing, the horse would not run out of control, holding the reins well so that it did not deviate from the path. [...] It was a time of great nervous tension, which left me half ill.<ref name=":13"/> |Mercè Rodoreda, prologue to ''La plaça del Diamant'' (26th edition)}}

In 1961, she sent another work to the same award, ''[[Death in Spring]]'', which did not win either, but rather it was [[Josep Maria Espinàs]] with ''The Last Landing'' who was victorious.

In 1965, Rodoreda took the first steps in the publication of her Complete Works after a request from Joaquim Molas, however they would not be published in Ediciones 62 until 1977. The work did not include any of her first four works (''I am an honest woman?'', ''What cannot escape'', ''A day in the life of a man'' and ''Crime'') because she considered that they were the result of her inexperience and she agreed to rewrite ''Aloma'' to adapt it to the level of her current work; and that it would be reissued in 1969.<ref name=":15" />

In 1966, her mother, Montserrat Gurguí, died; and three years later her uncle-husband, Joan Gurguí. As a result of the death of her husband, the relationship between mother and son was strained due to problems with the distribution of the inheritance.<ref>{{cite video |people = Josep M. Gurguí, Margarida Puig, Isabel Parés, Montserrat Casals, Núria Folch, Pere Gimferrer, Josep Maria Castellet |year = 2008 |title = 'Mercè Rodoreda, vida secreta' |medium = Producció Televisiva |publisher = [[TV3 (Catalonia)|TV3]] |time = 00:22:56 - 00:25:00 }}<!-- |director= Joan Úbeda --></ref> However, in 1966 was the year in which ''La calle de las Camelias'' was published that received the [[Premi Sant Jordi de novel·la|Sant Jordi Prize]] without her having submitted a candidacy; This fact was used for the direction to decide to award a work already published. With this same novel she also received the ''Serra d'Or Critical Prize for Literature and Essay'' in 1967, and the [[Ramon Llull Novel Award]] in 1969.<ref name=":17">{{Cite web |title=Mercè Rodoreda |url=https://www.escriptors.cat/autors/rodoredam |access-date=2021-07-27 |website=Associació d'Escriptors en Llengua Catalana |language=ca}}</ref> In 1967, she began working on the novel ''Broken Mirror'', which years later would become one of the most successful works of the author. ''Broken mirror'' was the result of the reworking of the play ''A day'' that had not been able to premiere. She also published two works: ''Garden by the Sea'' and a collection of stories entitled ''My Cristina and other stories''.

From 1970 onwards, her work began to be translated into other languages, though her first translated work was ''La Plaza del Diamante'' in Spanish in 1965.<ref name=":15" /> In 1971, her feeling of exile was accentuated with the death of her companion of many years, Armand Obiols, at the Vienna University Hospital. This fact, together with the discovery of another Obiols lover, left her even more alone and broken in Switzerland. During those days, she wrote a shocking little card about the hard days she spent in the hospital; currently, this card is kept in the archives of the [[Institute for Catalan Studies|IEC]].<ref>{{cite video |people = Josep M. Gurguí, Margarida Puig, Isabel Parés, Montserrat Casals, Núria Folch, Pere Gimferrer, Josep Maria Castellet |year = 2008 |title = 'Mercè Rodoreda, vida secreta' |medium = Producció Televisiva |publisher = [[TV3 (Catalonia)|TV3]] |time = 00:25:07 - 00:27:55 }}<!-- |director= Joan Úbeda --></ref> Consequently, after the reunion with some friends from the time of the Civil War, she decided to settle in 1972 in Carmen Manrubia's chalet in Romanyà de la Selva, without ceasing to reside in Geneva, albeit more and more sporadically.<ref name=":13" /><ref name=":16">{{Cite web |title=El recer celest a Romanyà |url=http://www.raco.cat/index.php/RevistaGirona/article/view/118586/151771 }}</ref>