There were more square meters than ever, but people overflowed them. At least, at mid-morning it was very difficult to walk along Passeig de Grà cia between Plaza Catalunya and Aragó. Queues and crossings reminiscent of the famous Shinjuku in Tokyo, with hundreds of people approaching. It is the battle of Sant Jordi chasing the dragon of the books. Mrs. Conxita fainted before reaching Aragó, the thermometer of the crowd was pressing, but her son and her grandson attended to her and she did not go any further. Around him people asked if they could help, and they did so by keeping a space for him to feel better.
The fan phenomenon was still overwhelmed, yes, but not only by authors like Alice Kellen: girls like Laura –with her mother, Vanessa– and Andrea –and her mother, Yolanda, who arrived from Mallorca for a dance contest, but also for the festivities – They had been queuing for more than 40 minutes around 11:30 a.m. and hoped to reach the finish line before the deadline, which was 2:00 p.m. Laia Collet, from Penguin Random House, brought order to the queues that came together between Marta Orriols, Pep Coll, Xavier Bosch and its author, Xavier Sala i MartÃn. Spirit of service.
At the L’Avenç stand, the editor Núria Iceta says that there is a spectacular influx, without figures, but with a lot of variety, beyond what the best-seller lists later reflect. Further on, in front of the Raig Verd stall, a passerby explains to her friend the entire publisher’s catalogue, including the house’s collections and authors, and on the other side, surprised, they joke that they could almost hire her.
Laia Altarriba, from the Kult cooperative (Tigre de Paper and L’Agulla Daurada) trusts people, especially when they have an author like Maryse Condé, finalist for the International Booker Prize. Finalist like Eva Baltasar’s Boulder, who at 12 o’clock has celebrated in the position of Club Editor who is also competing for the award. Marc Montull takes her to an interview among the crowd. Blancallum Vidal remembers the previous Sant Jordi: “I was a soldier of Marc, but we had a great time despite the fact that he fell.”
Josep Vallverdú, at 99, also signed, happy and somewhat tired, but assured that they had made things easy for him.
Once past the Diagonal, in Gran de Grà cia it was more fluffy, but even so, at the stand of the solidarity book network, Aida Isabel and Glòria assured that it was going much better than in years past, when they were in Plaça de la Vila, and since last Thursday there has been a great increase in sales.
