Montserrat Roig was one of the most important voices in contemporary Catalan literature, and the novelist of the viscera of classical Barcelona.
Writer, journalist and feminist, the city of Barcelona, and more specifically the Eixample, provided the principal setting for the narratives of sensational novels such as “El temps de les cireres” (The Time of Cherries), “La veu melodiosa” [The Melodious Voice] and “L’Hora Violeta” [The Violet Hour]. Thanks to the excellent work of investigative journalism she did with “Els catalans als camps nazis”, the historical memory of many of those who were repressed by Nazism was preserved. One of her role models was Mercè Rodoreda, whom she regarded as her mentor.
Roig studied philosophy and the arts at the University of Barcelona, gaining a PhD.
Her anti-fascist stance and political commitment led her to take part in the “Caputxinada” of 1966. In the 1970s, she was a member of the PSUC (Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia) and was the driving force behind the Assemblea Permanent d’Intellectuals Catalans, after taking part in the lock-in organised by intellectuals at the Abbey of Montserrat in protest against the Burgos trials. In the 1980s she became an established writer, and during those years worked with different newspapers and also in television and radio. She was awarded several literary prizes, such as the Premi Nacional de Literatura Catalana essay award and the Serra d’Or Critics Prize.
A prolific writer and journalist, she promoted the Permanent Assembly of Catalan Intellectuals and outlined her feminist and anti-fascist thinking in works like Els catalans als camps nazis and L’hora violeta.