10 books to celebrate the first decade of Edicions del Periscopi

Edicions del Periscopi is about to blow out candles. The imprint started in October 2012 with Terra de caimans, by Karen Russell, a Pulitzer Prize finalist. The independent publisher was born with the aim of providing readers with contemporary works in Catalan that stood out for their literary value, maintaining a calm publication rhythm and shying away from overproduction. "The editorial line does not respond to the construction of a canon, nor is it limited to the representation of a specific era, style or genre, but it does respond to the fulfillment of an unavoidable maxim: that all the books included have convinced the editors, have moved them or they have considered their publication necessary," they defend.

With six Llibreter awards in their pocket, they have published international authors such as Sally Rooney, Patrick Radden Keefe, Mia Couto, David Foster Wallace, Sylvia Plath or Rebecca Makkai. Locally, they have done so with Manuel Baixauli, Glòria de Castro, Helena Guilera Recorder or Marta Orriols, who recently went to the Proa publishing house.

A decade and 100 books later, the Barcelona imprint celebrates the anniversary with a collection of 10 titles by 10 different authors. The members of Periscopi / 10 anys / 10 llibres have been selected by the small team behind Edicions del Periscopi, with each member choosing one. "The criterion is not that they are the 10 best books or the best sellers, they have to represent us. They are a common ground for the people who work at the publishing house. They are not our favorite books, but those that we considered had to be championed," explains one of the editors, Marta Rubirola.

With a completely different design from the characteristic covers of the publishing house, always marked by striking colors and a straightforward synopsis, the titles of the new collection will maintain their vibrancy but will do so by converting their vertical stripes into horizontal ones and resorting to a postcard-format image as the protagonist. The first novels were published this Monday and will be released gradually until the end of September.

The first members of Periscopi / 10 anys / 10 llibres are Ànima, by Wajdi Mouawad, one of the books that marked a before and after in the trajectory of Edicions del Periscopi, and Un cor massa gran, by Eider Rodriguez. The list will be completed by La campana de vidre by Sylvia Plath; La confessió de la lleona by Miu Couto; L'aigua és això by David Foster Wallace; A la cambra fosca by Susan Faludi; Memòria del buit by Marcello Fois; Canteu, esperits, canteu by Jesmyn Ward; El ferrocarril subterráneo by Colson Whitehead, and Gegants de gel by Joan Benesiu. In addition to the birthday collection, new novels by Colson Whitehead, Gabrielle Zevin, Mircea Cărtărescu, and Beatrice Salvioni will be published.

The selected titles reflect a strong emphasis on translations, one of the trends that has come to define Edicions del Periscopi. Of the hundred books published during these 10 years, 70% have been titles translated from other languages and 30% original titles in Catalan. Aniol Rafel, one of the three editors, explains that the initial goal was to be at 50%-50%, but it was never achieved, not even in the first year. "We publish what we find interesting for the catalog," he emphasizes, "based on the proposals we have received," without forgetting the characteristics of the imprint, mainly, the reduced number of publications per year and the consolidation of recurring authors.

The first decade of the Catalan publishing house has also served to consolidate its position in the market. According to data collected by Edicions del Periscopi, its books represented 0.4% of the production of titles edited in Catalan in 2021, but achieved a market share of almost 4.5% (6.7% in fiction alone). Furthermore, sales have accelerated in recent years: in 2016 they represented 1% of the market share in Catalonia. "These data confirm that Edicions del Periscopi is, today, an imprint with an upward and successful projection," they underline.