Paloma San Basilio sets her new novel in Baztán, an area she is "in love" with.

The singer , actress, painter and writer Paloma San Basilio sets her second novel published in Spain, Uxoa, the secret of the valley , in Baztán , an area of ​​Navarre where she has owned a farmhouse for more than 25 years and which she confesses to being "in love with."

Uxoa, the secret of the valley (HarperCollins, 2025) is a story of love and mystery that takes place between the present, the 16th and 18th centuries, and that transports the reader from the Baztán Valley to Tibet, and from Cádiz to Callao, in Peru.

The novel, which the Madrid-born artist presented in Pamplona, ​​reflects on coping with loss, grief, and trying to move forward in life . "It's a story that isn't autobiographical, but rather the story of loss and reconstruction," the author explained.

In the book, San Basilio tells the story of Ágara, who, after the death of her older sister and life partner , devastated, leaves the family home in the Madrid neighborhood of Chamberí to take refuge in Uxoa , the inherited farmhouse in the Baztán Valley.

There she regains her lost calm, while at the same time the need to delve into her origins awakens in her, in order to find out how Uxoa came to her family.

Little by little, the misty meadows and ancient stones of the valley capture her, as do its mysteries, and a delicate investigation begins among the neighbors, the parish and the abbey of the town of Arizkun .

The plot of her novel takes place partly in the 18th century , "which is the era of significant immigration to America. And that's where the Gordian knot of the story lies, in that immigration, from which the entire story the protagonist is trying to find stems," she noted.

The story, he emphasized, " is a mix of searching, mystery, emotions, and encounters . And it's all very contextualized with the era, the customs, and the historical and social situation of Baztán during the 18th century."

And within the Baztán, the town of Arizkun takes on special relevance in the novel, which was the place of residence of the so-called 'agotes' , a group of residents who were marginalized for centuries and whose origin is still unknown.

One theory suggests that they were Albigensians fleeing the burning of Montsegur. This hypothesis is particularly popular with the author of the book for its interesting historical evocations.

San Basilio confesses to being in love with the Baztán Valley : "I know this area very well, I love it, because, although I'm not from here, I found it through a friend and logically I fell in love with the valley," where she found an old farmhouse that she ended up buying . That same farmhouse appears on the cover of her new novel.

The writer has admitted that she cannot spend long periods of time in her homestead: "I don't know, it's just that, with the name I have, I can't stay still anywhere, but it's true that I have a large part of my heart in this land , possibly because I identify so much with it, with the stones..."

"I talk a lot about that concept in the novel: authenticity, respect for the home, that home that has stood for centuries, which must be respected," he noted.

And then there's "this beauty, of course, this harmony of meadows and mountains," declared San Basilio, who emphasized: "It's very difficult to avoid falling in love with this land."