POL GUASCH "Auf den Händen brennt das Paradies“

A collaboration between Literaturherbst Heidelberg, Queer Festival, the Käte Hamburger College for Apocalyptic and Post-Apocalyptic Studies (CAPAS), and the City of Heidelberg’s Department of Culture

The acclaimed young Catalan queer author Pol Guasch visits Heidelberg—with his novel about friendship, memory, longing, and hope in a world engulfed in flames.

Rita and Líton meet at a party. She, who grows up in a settlement perched on a mountaintop where men extract raw materials from the earth in a mine, and he, who grows up in the city in the valley, become friends. A friendship that, in a world on the brink of collapse, creates a fantasy universe in which the two dream of a habitable world. From the settlement, one can see the forest fires raging in the valley; a deadly virus is spreading among men who love one another, and Líton, too, becomes infected. A hell on earth—contrasted by the paradise of friendship.

In his new novel, Pol Guasch creates a dystopian world in which two young people find each other and form a friendship, emancipating themselves together and experiencing the joy of youth. Told from different perspectives and in a highly poetic style, the novel paints a picture of friendship that can serve as a safety net beneath the tightrope that is our life.

Moderator: Marcel Kückelhaus (CAPAS)

Pol Guasch, born in Tarragona in 1997, studied literature and cultural studies at universities in Barcelona and London. After publishing two volumes of poetry, he released his debut novel *Napalm al cor* in 2021, for which he received the Anagrama Award for Best Novel of the Year that same year—making him the youngest recipient to date. Further accolades followed, and the novel has already been translated into several languages. It was published in German in 2024 by Wallstein Verlag (“Napalm im Herzen”), and in August 2026, his second novel was published in German: “Auf den Händen brennt das Paradies” (En las manos, el paraíso quema).