Jordi Corbera Bachs: Epiphany at the Foot of the Three Chimneys

For Jordi Corbera Bachs everything changed on May 2, 2020. "I had always felt the urge to write, but I had never dared to do it, I didn't believe myself capable, surely for fear of ridicule. But that May 2, at the worst possible moment in my life, with a two-year-old girl and my wife pregnant with my second child, I went crazy. That was the first day they let us leave the house after confinement to exercise, so I went for a run and passed by the Tres Xemeneies de Sant Adrià. One of the fictional scenes that always danced in my head took place there, so I got home and started writing with an unknown passion. I did it with such drive that, in thirteen months, I wrote three novels! I would get up at 5 in the morning or earlier, write with the girl climbing all over me, ask for days off work... I have enjoyed writing so much! Doing it, I feel fullness, an emotion not easy to find."

The parishioner enjoys a "cold glass of beer" and some olives while, in the background, R&B notes crackle from Gene Vincent and his Blue Caps.

--- And how did you go from writing to publishing?

--- My partner was the only known person I let read my texts. Otherwise, I commissioned reports from professional readers: I wanted to know if what I wrote had any value or was rubbish. One of these professional readers wrote to me saying that he had loved the manuscript of Butsènit d'Urgell, a rural thriller, and that, if I didn't have it committed, he himself was interested in publishing it with the Calambur-Xandri publishing house.

Thus, Jordi Corbera's debut has just seen the light, presented at the recent Setmana del Llibre en Català.

"I never thought I would manage to publish and I am very happy with the result. It is a crime novel in a very local rural setting, with touches of horror and western in which I have tried to make the narrative pace very high," concludes the author with the evident pride of the writer who shores up confidence in his work upon seeing it, finally, on bookstore shelves.

Color, work and escapism

Coming from a working-class family from Sant Adrià de Besòs and a vintage of '82 ---"this year we turn forty"---, the parishioner graduated in 2006 in Chemistry and has been working in the world of pigments ever since. "I am responsible for an applications laboratory and I love my job. I like to think that, with my work, I bring a little color to life." Father of "a beautiful girl and boy" aged 4 and 2 who, he assures, have filled much of the emptiness he has always felt inside, the author treasures fifty different notebooks where "I am always jotting down thoughts, phrases and reflections".

--- Fifty is a lot! You surely have many projects underway.

--- Well, yes, right now I'm involved with a lot of things. The first is the promotion of the book: I would love for readers to give it a chance. On the other hand, I will continue to move the other two manuscripts I have, a young adult crime novel and a science fiction one, which for me is the best of the three. Finally, I already have the idea for my fourth novel and a first outline that needs to ferment for a few months. I hope to write it during the first half of 2023. As if that weren't enough, in a few weeks I'm moving house: relocation, looking for schools... I don't get bored!

A conspicuous activity that reflects a deep love for reading literary fiction: "I encourage everyone to read. When we have a bad day, there is nothing better to disconnect from ourselves than to delve into the other worlds that letters give us. Series and movies are good, but reading gives you something different that makes the escape more complete."

A city that has not lost the battle

"Barcelona has always been the great city, a window to the world when I wanted to escape the neighborhood." During his childhood, the writer's parents and uncles owned a codfish shop in the Santa Caterina market and a plush toy store on Carrer del Pi. "I always went to help and run errands up and down all over Ciutat Vella. That allowed me to get to know the character of the working-class Barcelonian, while also allowing me to see people with aesthetics of all kinds and from every corner of the planet. It was a wonderful combination," he recalls.

That plush toy store, called J. Corbera, remains in the memory of many Barcelonians so many years after its closure: "Everyone stopped there because there were plush toys piled up in every corner. In fact, when I met my wife and told her about the store, she remembered the place perfectly and having bought there on a couple of occasions. Surely my sister would have attended to her, who is now her sister-in-law!"

"Barcelona has always been the great city, a window to the world when I wanted to escape the neighborhood"

--- Similarly, the essence of this Bar is its succulent culinary offer based on menu, combined dishes, sandwiches, portions or tapas. In case you want to accompany your next beer with something…

Jordi Corbera Bachs hungrily reviews the display of dishes, before deciding on portions

--- In fact ---he clarifies with a smile---, make them half portions, that way I can try more things."