The new season comes loaded with many editorial novelties that will try to make the return to routine more bearable for those who have already finished their holidays, although they can also encourage those who, fortunately, are now starting them. The New Barcelona Post selects some of the most outstanding titles, with a mix of local and foreign writers, varied genres and even a bit of the increasingly acclaimed graphic novel.
The short story stands out as the great protagonist of this literary rentré, with Carlota Gurt, Laura Fernández and Sergi Pàmies defending it with their very own voices. Their stories will be alongside much-anticipated returns, such as that of South Korean writer Han Kang. But there are also classics for whom any excuse to bring them back is always good, like Carmen Laforet and Ursula K. Le Guin. Oh, and although it may not seem like it, Harry Potter, aspiring to become a classic, has already turned 25.
- Biography of Fire, Carlota Gurt (Libros del Asteroide/Proa)
Writer Carlota Gurt (Barcelona, 1976) returns after the success of
Alone (2020) and
Ride All Night(Mercè Rodoreda Prize 2019). With a tone sometimes ironic, sometimes confessional, the writer presents a selection of short stories in which birds, vehicles, and catastrophes follow one another amidst plots of beginnings, breakups, solitude, fears, and losses. The translator has also taken on the task of translating herself into Castilian for the first time. Just in case, Gurt recommends reading them in order to see the relationships between the stories and not to swallow more than two at once, in order to recover, especially from some of them.
Now in bookstores.
- Damas, caballeros y planetas, Laura Fernández (Random House)
Laura Fernández (Terrassa, 1981) slipped onto many nightstands with
Mrs. Potter is not exactly Santa Claus(2021), a wild and extensive narrative in which she constructed an unimaginable and alienated world, though perhaps an increasingly realistic one. Fernández, also a journalist and literary and music critic, now publishes
Ladies, gentlemen, and planets, a selection of short stories written over the last 15 years. If in his previous novel he took us to the impossible and icy Kimberly Clark Weymouth, now he will take us to absurd corners of the galaxy, maintaining his outlandish characters. One of the stories will be unpublished and, (OH! SURPRISE!), will bring back the complicated Francis Violet McKisco, the popular writer from Kimberly Clark Weymouth.
In bookstores starting October 5.
- A les dues seran les tres, Sergi Pàmies (Quaderns Crema)
Sergi Pàmies (Paris, 1960) also opts for short stories for this start of the academic year. The writer returns to the genre five years after
The art of wearing a trench coat, but leaving aside the denser topics he dealt with in that book and focusing again on the pleasure of narrating. Memory and the passage of time are present in the ten stories of
At two it will be three, portraying episodes of recent history such as the death of Franco, the 1992 Olympic Games, or the 2017 Barcelona attacks. Even Manuel Vázquez Montalbán sneaks in.
Now in bookstores.
- The Infinite in a Reed, Irene Vallejo and Tyto Alba (Debate)
Who would have thought that an essay on the origin and evolution of books would become a
bestseller international. Probably no one but the writer Irene Vallejo (Zaragoza, 1979) can say that she has achieved it. Her passionate and detailed narration is a calm cure that has seduced more than a million readers around the world. Now, it takes on a new life with the graphic adaptation made by Tyto Alba (Badalona, 1975), another way to approach the exciting story of those travel companions that no one would imagine have been surviving for centuries an odyssey that fails to defeat them.
Now in bookstores.
Graphic adaptation by Tyto Alba of El infinito en un junco by Irene Vallejo. - Nada, Carmen Laforet (Cátedra)
It's never too late to read, or reread,
Nothing of Carmen Laforet (Barcelona, 1921 - Madrid, 2004), that novel that portrayed a hard and gray era by focusing on what some did not want to be seen. That post-war Barcelona, with the hardships, hunger, and cold accompanying a girl who arrives at Estación de França with a suitcase full of books destined for an apartment on Aribau Street. The publisher Cátedra celebrates its 50th anniversary with the collection
Five decades, formed by a selection of eight titles, among which are also other national prides such as Federico García Lorca, but also foreign authors such as Françoise Sagan and Joseph Conrad.
In bookstores starting September 7.
- Rocannon's World, Ursula K. Le Guin (Raig Verd)
The Barcelona-based publisher Raig Verd continues to hit the mark with Ursula K. Le Guin (Berkeley, 1929 - Portland, 2018). With more than ten titles by the American author published, the Barcelona-based publisher now recovers
Rocannon's World, halfway between science fiction and fantasy literature, with the passage of time as a narrative ally that disrupts everything. With a beautiful cover, this novel is also the first published by Le Guin, in 1966, as well as being the one that begins her
Hainish Cycle, set in the Ekumen, a galactic federation of worlds inhabited by human beings. In November, Raig Verd will add one more to the list with
Planet of Exile.
Now in bookstores.
Raig Verd publishes the first novel by the acclaimed Ursula K. Le Guin. - Greek Lessons, Han Kang (Random House/La Magrana)
Han Kang (Kwangju, 1970) burst onto the international scene with
Thevegetarian, written in 2007, translated into English in 2015 and winner of the International Booker Prize in 2016. In Spain, it was published by Rata publishing house in 2017, in Spanish and Catalan. With a very particular, suffocating, disturbing and absorbing style, the South Korean novelist and poet narrates the story of a housewife who one day decides to become a vegetarian and everything that comes after that seemingly trivial change. Translated into more than 30 languages, the author now publishes
The Greek Class, starring a woman who has not decided to stop eating meat but cannot speak after losing her mother and custody of a child.
In bookstores on starting September 7. - Lessons, Ian McEwan (Anagrama)
The British writer publishes
Lessons, a novel in which he traces the life of Roland Baines, an adult who was an institutionalized child and was marked by what happened to him with a piano teacher. Now, abandoned by his wife, he remains trapped in that moment of his life, as happens to the protagonists of one of his best-known works,
Chesil Beach (2007). Ian McEwan (Aldershot, 1948), author also of
Amsterdam(1998) and
Atonement (2001), returns to the charge after the excellent
Nutshell(2016) and the complicated
Machines like me(2019).
In bookstores starting September 6.
Ian McEwan, one of the big names at Anagrama, returns with Lessons. - The Eagle's Claws, Karin Smirnoff (Destino/Columna)
The crime series
Millenniumcaptivates millions of readers worldwide for almost 20 years. The Swedish writer Stieg Larsson (Skellefteå, 1954 - Stockholm, 2004) rose to fame after his death, with the publication of the trilogy formed by
The Men Who Didn't Love Women(2005),
The Girl Who Dreamed of a Match and a Can of Gasoline(2006) and
The Queen in the Palace of Drafts(2007). Larsson's heirs chose David Lagercrantz in 2015 to continue the stories starring Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist,
What doesn't kill you makes you stronger(2015),
The Man Who Chased His Shadow(2017) and
The Girl Who Lived Twice(2019). Now it's the turn of Karin Smirnoff, the first female writer to do so, debuting with
The Eagle's Claws.
Now in bookstores. - Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, J.K. Rowling (Salamandra/Empúries)
Although it's hard to believe, Harry Potter is already 25 years old. J.K. Rowling's (Yate, 1965) wizarding saga has become the gateway to reading for many young people, attracting millions of readers over all these years and transcending the publishing phenomenon, conquering screens and even turning into a place of pilgrimage, perhaps already too massive, the bars where its author was inspired, whether in Edinburgh or Porto. There are even those who visit the cemetery where a certain Thomas Riddell is buried. To celebrate the anniversary, publishers Salamandra and Empúries have prepared a special edition, with original drawings by the author and a detailed map of Hogwarts, updating the aesthetic to continue attracting future bibliophiles.
Now in bookstores.
Limited edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J.K. Rowling for its 25th anniversary.