The Sleeping Breast

A poet confronts breast cancer 

A seminal book by Dolors Miquel, poised halfway between memoir, poetic and philosophical reflection, and essay. Starting from a breast cancer diagnosis she received five years ago, the author reflects on the female breast in the arts and as metaphor; on the condition and representation of women in history and literature; and on poetry and other cultural spheres. 

Running parallel to the course of the illness, she recounts personal stories from childhood and youth with a distinctly generational, collective dimension—bringing to the foreground what, at a certain moment, constituted the most innovative and disruptive poetry in Catalonia: tours and readings with poets and friends such as Enric Casasses, Pau Riba, Josep Pedrals, Gerard Horta, and Víctor Nubla.