“Hello Pau, what you’re doing is very strong, you know!” says the editor of Pilarín Bayés to a baby who watches, perplexed, as the most admired illustrator in Catalonia signs what will be his first book. And she does it, too, at the stand of the oldest bookstore in Barcelona, ??La Fabre, an establishment founded in 1860 and which in the 1950s specialized in German books and classic wooden toys. Mrs. Geigle, its owner, imported them from her native Germany, and even today her grandson and daughter-in-law continue to sell them, in addition to having specialized the store in children’s and young people’s books.
Pilarín has been delayed for more than an hour, she did not want to leave anyone without a signature in Abacus, where she signed before. But when he arrives and says “ha soc here!”, no one remembers the time that has passed. “I want this one to be dedicated to my granddaughter, who is about to be born today, if not tomorrow,” says Sara, taking that double story of the Llegenda de Sant Jordi that, when you turn it around, offers The Arrival of the princess. “Oh, and look, she seems bossy and a reader, in the library she has books on law, physics, Plato, Euripides… and Cleopatra! She’s very cultured. I’ll ask her to sign it for me on that side of the book.” princess”.
“It’s very good, because you can explain the classic legend and then the author’s legend,” adds Noa, a former children’s bookseller who still had a signature from Pilarín Bayés pending. “When she was little she had many of her books, it is a childhood classic for everyone,” she adds while the author leaves no copy unsigned and drawn.
On her side, Anna says that when she left the house this morning she ran into a girl dressed as a Saint George princess, “but with a sword: she won’t need Saint George to defend her”. The lady has acquired two revivals from 2007… Petita história d’Esquerra and Petita história de Llengua Catalana, and in the first one Bayés draws a club… “I learned Catalan with L’Espardenyeta and Tres i no res “, another lady tells him. “What an illusion!” replies the vital cartoonist, born in Vic 83 years ago.
The queue that has formed to see it has nothing to envy of the one waiting next to it to compliment Roberto Leal, the presenter of Pasapalabra who signs copies of the story My grandfather Pepe. “You are wonderful, you are a charming person… no no, I will pass it on to my granddaughter but dedicate it to me, who came from Lleida to see you,” a lady says. They all want a photo with the journalist, who doesn’t complain… “no, I’m going to do squats today.”
The children’s corner at the Fabre stand maintains its hustle and bustle, but the best sellers in the morning are Història d’un piano, by Ramon Gener; La puresa de l’engany, by Gerard Quintana, and Confetti, by Jordi Puntí. “We always stock up on titles that are going to be in high demand,” explains Eugènia, the manager who still lived through the last years of the establishment on Rambla Catalunya. The change of location (now on Aribau Street) has not diminished their clientele. On the contrary, they have grown in turnover, people have followed them in search of toys that do not contain plastic, and they have a lot of online sales.
