It was like Sant Jordi, but it was Holy Thursday, that is, the literary snack that the El Cucut bookstore in Torroella de Montgrí has ??turned into a tradition, because it has already organized it on eleven occasions, this year with more than fifty guest writers. As the mayor, Jordi Colomí, said, “this is not normal, being able to bring together so many writers,” grateful because “culture forms a model of society,” just after the bookseller, Maria Teresa Calabús, recalled the commitment to an independent bookstore : “The only thing that moves us is the reader, to be able to recommend the book that works well for him, not the one that we liked.”

The meeting dates back to April 19, 2011 – if they make numbers and it doesn’t add up it is because the pandemic must be discounted – when Sant Jordi fell on a Saturday in the middle of Holy Week, and with the Gremi de Llibreters de Catalunya they looked for some option to celebrate Book Day outside the big cities. 17 writers attended and it worked, and the following year they repeated it, taking advantage of the fact that the bookstore was celebrating its 25th anniversary, and the next year it was consolidated on Maundy Thursday. And it grew, from year to year, until after the hundred invited authors had passed, they set a limit so that the creature would not grow too big and would not get out of hand. Writers who will sell more and others less, but all on an equal footing.

Among the writers who approached this Jew were Eva Baltasar, Elisabet Riera, Vicenç Villatoro, Marta Marín-Dòmine, Miquel Martín i Serra, Mercè Saurina, Miquel Desclot, Sylvia Lagarda-Mata, Pep Antoni Roig, Carlota Gurt, Martí Gironell, Laia Vilaseca, Marc Sarrats, Mar Bosch Oliveras, Jordi Massó, Berta Creus, Jordi Dausà, Ana Punset, Abraham Orriols, Antònia Carré-Pons, Bru Rovira, Blanca Busquets, Francesc Ribera Titot, Joan Enric Barceló, Neus Rossell, Jordi Milán y Pol Vinyes, Maria Carme Roca or Jordi Puntí and so many others.

Calabús insists that the essence remains the same: “Share.” Because authors and readers – and also some editors – are on the same level, invited to have a snack, to eat the brunyols and cakes that she and her family still make. It’s not Holy Communion, but here everyone shares bread and salt, whether brunyols or books. And without any betrayal.

Catalan version, here