What would Gabriel García Márquez have done if he had been alive and walking around Barcelona last Wednesday? Surely, visit the library that bears his name, in the Sant Martí district, where his son, Gonzalo García Barcha, presented his father’s latest book. That is, from himself. Perhaps Gabo would look at him astonished, since he always told him that that manuscript should be burned. “I hope my father forgives us,” he would confess hours before in Madrid to journalist Xavi Ayén, an expert on the Latin American boom, and also present at the literary event. The family turned a deaf ear and, years after the death of the literary Nobel Prize winner, handed over the multiple versions of the text that existed to an editor who knew how to see the treasure he had in his hands.
“If the readers do not give that vote of approval to the novel – See you in August (Random House) – it will not be republished,” warned the first-born before an audience that had to request a reservation to be able to attend the event. The writer Héctor Abad Faciolince, who claims to have read this short novel five times, was very convinced that this would not happen and that the public would appreciate these pages, which arrived in bookstores on the day the writer would have turned 97 years old.
He also acknowledged that “the idea that this would become the hidden or lost novel of a certain author bothered me. “We knew that sooner or later the novel was going to end up coming out, and it is possible that the edition could evolve as long as the text is liked by readers.” What García Barcha did distinguish beforehand is the cover of the novel, by the illustrator David de las Heras, who stood up shyly when his name was called from the stage. Audience and speakers honored him with loud applause.
There was no shortage of applause and congratulations at the beginning of the week at the Bernat bookstore, where Gabriel Lara de la Casa, professor of literature at the London School Institute in Barcelona, ??presented his first book, Literature on the surface, accompanied by the critic, essayist and professor. Jordi Llovet. Of course, none of the students the author teaches were missing. Not even Pau Petel, a “star student who is here this afternoon despite the fact that he turns sixteen today.”
Lara’s passion for literature is undeniable. Her body is tattooed with quotes from authors like Lorca or Valle Inclán, which she takes advantage of to comment on with her students while she teaches. “I am a tattooed anthology of the best I have ever read,” she acknowledged a week before to La Contra of this newspaper. Furthermore, she confessed to an audience that she went to the street that “I need a book to feel accompanied,” and that with a good read and her dog, she doesn’t need anything else.
The literary week culminated with Lizzy Stewart almost not being able to talk to her fans about Alison, her new graphic novel, considered the best of last year by newspapers such as The Guardian, The Telegraph and The Irish Times. The illustrator suffered an accident at lunchtime with a fish bone that kept her at the Hospital Clínic for most of the afternoon. Luckily, everything ended in a scare and she was able to arrive at the event only ten minutes late.
“I didn’t want to miss something like that. It is not common for comic artists from the United Kingdom to leave the country. His works are usually relegated to the bottom shelf of bookstores. That’s why I strived to create something that everyone would like, especially my mother and sister.” Judging by the interesting and spontaneous conversation that arose on Thursday between author and readers, Stewart has achieved her goal.