Literature in Barcelona

Barcelona through books / Writers and Barcelona

Catalan literature is incredibly rich. In this prodigious city the writers seem to be as much. Imagination, humor and real stories...

Great, true literature and still many surprises to come because these writers are young and alive for many of them...

City of Marvels by Eduardo Mendoza (1986) : bestseller about a young farmer who, at the time of the Universal Exposition of 1888, arrives at the great city, Barcelona, and becomes one of the richest and influential man in the country with methods absolutely no orthodox. 

"Carrer Robadors" (Street of Thieves) by Mathias Enard - 2012

Goncourt Prize 2015 with his novel "Boussole". Mathias Enard has lived and written in Barcelona for years, he even has a Karakala restaurant there. In his novel "Carrer Robadors" (Street of Thieves), he evokes the dark side of Barcelona. The Barcelona of refugees, illegal immigrants, junkies, thieves, human misery, crossroads of several continents...

Murder in the Central Committee by Manuel Vásquez Montalbàn (1999) : Where Pepe Carvalho, a private detective eye has to leave his beloved Barcelona to investigate the murder of the General Secretary of the PCP. For Pepe, Barcelona is the center of the world. All things civilized, cultured and worth eating and drinking belong there. Pepe Carvalho will be your best guide to discover Barcelona and in particular its best restaurants. 

O’clock (Olivetti, Moulinex, Chafoteaux et Maury): Quim Monzó (1980) : Winner of Spain's 1981 Catalan Critics' Prize, the 16 stories in this collection are premised on unlikely but realistic events whose effect is fabulous and intriguing, they are imaginative and witty in what may well be a dry, Catalonian kind of way, but none provide profound revelation of character. 

Rites of death, Alicia Giménez-Bartlett (1996): Each time, history repeats itself : the masked rapist acts, at night, in the suburbs of Barcelona. His young victim of small size carries a mark in the shape of a flower in the arm. Helped by assistant inspector Garzón, Petra Delicado carries out the survey. And it comes out, with much humor. 

The gray book, Joseph Pla (1966): in 1918, due to Spanish influenza the Faculty of Law is closed what constrained Josep Pla to return to his parents in Palafrugell. At the age of 21, he decides to write a newspaper, the gray book. The free, spontaneous, enthusiastic chronicle of a young man divided between village and capital, arranged life, teachers and artists, myths and realities of Barcelona. 

Diamond square, Mercè Rodoreda (1962): Natàlia alias Colemeta works in a pastry in the district of Gràcia. She gets married, raises her children, and becomes a cleaning lady. She loses her military husband in the republican army before knowing the hunger and despair. She marries again with the grocer in the corner during the second Republic. 

The taste of Barcelona.(2003) Barcelona is the theatre of certain novels, or simply an evocation in travel or souvenir books in this small collection which extremely skillfully gathers texts from writers of this city. La Movida seen by Theophilus Gautier, Eduardo Mendoza, Montalban, Francisco Gonzales Ledesma, Paul Morand, Pedro Zarraluki and some others.