Barcelona Days

By: Daniel Riley

Narrated by: Will Collyer

In this captivating novel, an erupting Icelandic volcano grounds all flights in and out of Europe, forcing four vacationing Americans to reckon with the problems they'd hoped to leave behind in Barcelona.

Whitney and Will are a perfect couple by all appearances, their relationship rock-solid and their engagement soon to be announced. Before their impending nuptials, however, Whitney suggests a lighthearted experiment: Why not give each other three romantic "free passes" before getting married? Three opportunities to imagine other lives before returning with new appreciation for each other. On what's meant to be the last night of a romantic Barcelona vacation, they agree to regale one another with details of these harmless trysts. They grin and bear it and fall asleep feeling mostly satisfied and relieved to be firmly together again.

But then a volcano erupts overnight, spewing a cloud of ash across Europe and grounding all flights indefinitely. Trapped in Barcelona, their paths intertwine with a star basketball player, his future dashed by a crippling injury, and a foreign exchange student with a double life, about to return home and face reality.

Whitney and Will flirt, provoke, dance, and drink. Over the next three days, they will use and be used by their new friends, once again testing the boundaries of their relationship - but this time, can it survive?

©2020 Daniel Riley (P)2020 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

"A funny, strange, propulsive novel, pleasurable from start to finish." (Joshua Henkin)

"From beginning to end, the reader walks with Whitney and Will along the precipice marking an edge they may or may not have crossed. With dry humor and involving dialogue, Riley steps boldly into territory other authors have only tentatively approached." (Enobong Tommelleo)

...maybe better as a short story

I struggled with this book because it never took off. The characters were unlikable and the girlfriend was outright miserable. At the climax of the story, I just did not care because the story did not build up to the scenario. Thus, it was unbelievable. Unfortunately, I cannot recommend this book.

Life is messy...

...Even for privileged millennials. Riley’s novel explores the brewing angst in a cross-hatch of relationships between four twenty- and thirty-somethings. Like the Icelandic volcano that trapped the four in Barcelona for four days, tensions rise, conditions worsen, and ultimately there is an eruption and vast but perhaps survivable destruction. Riley depicts complex characters and their actions and feelings come through as raw and real. And the writing is compelling—rich but tightly worded descriptions and screenplay-worthy dialogue. I listened to the book and the reading was excellent. I came away connected to and invested in each of the four characters, warts and all. Riley is particularly adept at conveying his characters’ interiors—their feelings and thoughts, how their backgrounds shaped who they’ve become—in a dynamic exterior context—here, the city of Barcelona in the aftermath of the volcano.