Those who have not been able to enjoy vacations this Easter have not had time to get bored. Although at certain times many Barcelona streets became deserted, many of those who stayed have known how to take advantage of the time by attending one of the literary presentations that have taken place. This is the only way to explain why most meetings were forced to place extra chairs so that all readers could take a seat. Not even the rain stopped everyone who wanted to listen to Julià Guillamon last Monday at the Finestres bookstore talk about her new essay, El jove Palau i Fabre: Una família de l’Eixample de Barcelona, ??el somni d’Eivissa i la Guerra Civil (Galàxia Gutenberg).
He was accompanied by the journalist Plàcid García-Planas, who defined his companion as “a weaver of stories.” A task that Guillamon has been carrying out for more than twenty-five years, since that is the time he has dedicated to his latest book. “In this period I have changed computers more than ten times, I have published nineteen books and I have drunk three teraliters of beer,” he joked. It is not that long if what you want is to study the life and work of a poet and writer in detail and offer a captivating story that can be read like a novel. Of course, the author confessed to the public that, during the documentation process, “I was careful,” because he realized that “Palau made up some stories, especially about the family environment. He said that everything he knew he owed to his father. And he calls his mother a dominator and a ‘monster’. In the letters, however, we see that this is not the case.”
Another anecdote that caught the author’s attention is that the Civil War caught Palau i Fabre in an Ibiza in which the writers María Teresa León and Rafael Alberti also coincided. “It seems like a comical movie because he arrived there on July 14, 1936 and, four days later, the fighting broke out, but he was so immersed in his things that he didn’t find out until a few weeks later. It was something unreal,” Guillamon concluded while outside the rain returned after weeks of absence in the city.
Carrying an umbrella did not deter those who had yet to read El crim del monestir (Columna), the latest by Miquel Fañanàs. The journalist presented his latest historical novel – number 26 – together with his friend, the historian and archivist Ramón Alberch, since it was thanks to him and his book Barcelona. Històries, curiositats i misteris (Vienna) that he learned the story of a real crime that shocked Banyoles in the 17th century. “Some monks exploded a barrel of gunpowder that they placed inside the monastery of Sant Esteve. The father abbot, who was resting at the time, died after a brief agony.”
How did this violence come about? What really happened? Were the monks responsible or someone external? These are some of the doubts from which the writer starts and which serve as an excuse to put as the protagonist “the young postulant Mateu, 12 years old, a newcomer who will discover the truths that many strive to hide,” said the winner of the 2012 Nèstor Luján award for La bruixa de pedra (Columna), who plays with an advantage due to “the scarce documentation” of the events, which allows him to have “more room to invent . That’s why I want to remember that what I have written is a novel and not an essay. Of course, I always try to ensure that the fictional elements I add do not betray the story, but rather complement it and allow readers to find it educational, as it is a way for them to learn more about a city.”
Those who were also eager to know new stories were those who gathered on Wednesday in the auditorium of the Gabriel García Márquez library, since the center, aware that these are school vacation dates, prepared a session of Latin American stories suitable for all audiences . Not only parents and children came there, but other lovers of oral tradition who came on their own, willing to learn new stories that cross borders. “This is a week for families and, therefore, the literature and activities that we offer these days are dedicated to them,” explained Sergi Rodríguez, in charge of energizing the center’s Instagram.
The host of the highly appreciated (and applauded) session was Alejandra Hurtado Cicarelli, from the Bcn Storytelling Factory, who explained to La Vanguardia shortly before starting the session that she is “specialized in the investigation of oral tradition” and that she has created its own methodology, “which allows other adults to tell stories and capture the attention of the little ones in a much more interactive way.” One of the star elements that won the admiration of more than one was the combination of stories with music, since there were several original and innovative instruments, many of them from the other side of the globe, that accompanied her on stage and that then the public could touch and see up close.
“The idea is to exchange ways of seeing the world. And this is something that is very interesting to do from an early age. “Let them be aware that there are certain words that change their meaning depending on the country or animals that, even if they do not see them in Barcelona, ??exist and are very present in Latin American and world literature.”