A writer and translator, she founded the La Gaya Ciencia and Bausán publishing houses and served as the general manager of the Biblioteca Nacional de España (National Library of Spain). As a young girl, she lived in exile in France during the Spanish Civil War. She returned to Barcelona and was a student at a boarding school run by Dominican nuns in the neighbourhood of Horta. She earned a degree in Philosophy and Humanities from the University of Barcelona and began to work for the publishing house in 1964. Five years later she founded the La Gaya Ciencia publishing house, which focuses on architecture, poetry, literature and politics, and Bausán, which publishes children’s literature. In 1983, she began to work as a translator for the UN and moved to Geneva, the city after which she named her first book, which was published in 1987. Four years later, she published Memorias de Almantor, her first novel, which examines a woman's path to maturity. A prolific author, she also published Azul, which won the 1994 Nadal award, and La canción de Dorotea, which garnered her the 2001 Planeta award. UN translator (1983-94) and general manager of the Biblioteca Nacional de España (National Library of Spain) (2003-2007). She was awarded the Creu de Sant Jordi (St George's Cross) from the government of Catalonia in 2005.
A writer and translator, she founded the La Gaya Ciencia and Bausán publishing houses and served as the general manager of the National Library of Spain. She won the 1994 Nadal award for her novel Azul and the 2021 Planeta award for La canción de Dorotea.