The island has a surprisingly deep literary connection. Some books that give it real texture:
A Winter in Majorca — George Sand (1855). The famous account of Sand and Chopin’s stay in Valldemossa. Unflattering about the locals, vivid about the landscape. Still worth reading for the descriptions of the Tramuntana in winter.
Collected Short Stories — Robert Graves. Graves lived in Deià for decades. His shorter fiction is rooted in the landscape and village life, even when the subjects are mythological.
The Bloody Forging of a Nation — Paul Preston. Not Mallorca-specific, but essential for understanding the Civil War’s impact on the island. Mallorca’s Republican sympathies were brutally suppressed — the history is still felt.
Sunstone — Octavio Paz. Not about Mallorca, but Paz stayed on the island and the Mediterranean light runs through his work. Read it on a terrace in Deià and see what happens.
Bread and Oil — Tomàs Graves. Robert Graves’s son writes about Mallorcan food, culture and daily life. Less literary, more observational — and very good on the detail of what makes island cooking distinctive.
Mallorca: The Making of the Landscape — Richard Buswell. An academic but readable account of how Mallorca’s landscape was shaped by centuries of agriculture, tourism and development.
What would you add? Books, essays, articles — anything that deepened your understanding of the place.