“I’m going to tell you what happened to me and what didn’t happen to me. The possibility that nothing happened to me is what shocks me the most.”

Marta believes she is dying. With the onset of menopause, the changes to her body are stirring up new anxieties. Every time she feels a pain in her chest, a numbness in her arm, or a tension in her clavicle, she assumes she has cancer, or some other diagnosis she has yet to learn of. 

During a flight, she starts to experience a pain underneath her rib. Unsure whether the pain signals the ominous approach of death or a simple bout of flatulence, Marta descends into an examination of pain’s impact upon her life. 

Is pain a symptom of fatal illness or anxiety? Is her body failing or is she failing her body? 

From one of Spain’s most widely read and acclaimed authors, My Clavicle is a provocative and vulnerable semi-autobiographical novel rendering a memorable portrait of pain, health anxiety and menopause.

“One of the most harsh, beautiful, brutal and impious books that I have read in a long time.” - Leila Guerriero, El País 

“She has found the best way to be a political writer: her language is like a body. She talks to you like nobody else can.” - J. M. Pozuelo Yvancos, ABC Cultural

“A literary exercise in ‘auto-fiction’ that also studies the mood of a family and a wider social environment.” - Íñigo Urrutia, El Diario Vasco

“In Clavícula, Marta Sanz demonstrates a poetics of fragility [..] Her writing oozes pain and truth. However, […] it also oozes life, possibility, catharsis and games, luminosity and humour.” - Edurne Portela, La Marea

ISBN-13: 9781836750017

Weight: 184 grams

Format: Paperback

Country of Origin (language): Spain

Language: Spanish tr. English

Pub Date: 06/11/2025

Page Extent: 165 Pages