Today is a day that Catalonia has been waiting for a long time. Since 2019 there has not been a normal Sant Jordi, either due to the pandemic or due to inclement weather, which spoiled last year’s party and destroyed some stalls and copies, even leaving injuries. Booksellers, publishers and readers do not quite trust and continue to look at the sky, somewhat overcast first thing in the morning, although they breathe easier than in 2022.
The starting signal was given last night at the usual La Vanguardia party, where some 500 people from the publishing sector met to celebrate the festivity. Hours earlier, Gemma Ruiz Palà , took advantage of the proclamation at the Barcelona City Council to vindicate Maria Aurèlia Capmany, “a woman who deserved to be the protagonist”, as the author of Les nostres Mares (Proa) stated last night.
Despite being Sunday, there are many people who have chosen to get up early to buy the rose and the book and thus avoid crowds. Some even admit to being in the area to be one of the first in line to meet their favorite writer. ElÃsabet Benavent, Javier Castillo, Camilla Lackberg, Xavier Bosch, Luz Gabás, Enrique Vila-Matas, Eduardo Mendoza, Maria Barbal, Javier Cercas, Sara Mesa or Fernando Aramburu and Gemma Ventura, as well as filmmakers such as Pedro Almodóvar, Carla Simón and Albert Serra , are just some of the names that will be signing throughout the day. Not even the Lello bookstore, considered one of the most beautiful in the world, wants to miss this day and for the first time it leaves Portugal with a stand in Plaza Reial.
In Barcelona, ​​this new edition promises to break records, as it is the one with the most square meters, the most authors signing books and the most stops, going from 287 in 2022 to 320 by 2023. Patrici Tixis, president of the Chamber of Books, He baptized it days before in a press conference as the dyad with “the greatest offer of all time”.
The city will fully recover the emblematic Rambla after three years of restrictions due to the covid and will consolidate the model of the literary superblock, between Gran Via and Diagonal avenue and between Pau Claris and Balmes streets, with Passeig de Grà cia as the backbone axis As for Girona, Tarragona and Lleida, they will bet on the same models as last year.
