Monday, December 7, 2020 – 02:42
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During the pandemic they have opened small neighborhood bookstores, to which are added the great Ona Llibres of the businessman Tatxo Bonet and, in 2021, the central Finestres of the patron Sergio Ferrer-Salat, which will promote literary awards
Librera Byron, from Barcelona.
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A legendary bookstore turned McDonald’s. Since the mythical Catalnia, founded in 1924, closed its doors in 2013 to become a fast food it seemed that Barcelona was going to lose its bookish DNA. That year horribilis there was another closure: that of Canuda, the paradise of the occasion book that inspired Carlos Ruiz Zafn Cemetery of forgotten books (Today, it is a Mango store). But the trend has changed in recent years and, in the midst of a pandemic, there has been a boom of independent bookstores in Barcelona: the Byron has just opened, the first bookstore with a fireplace (electric, yes, although rescued from a flea market) and the extinct Negra y Criminal, by the long-awaited Paco Camarasa, has been resurrected under the name of Fahrenheit 451. Parallel to the neighborhood bookstores, two large businessmen sponsor two reading temples: Ona Llibres, the flagship of literature in Catalan promoted by the collector Tatxo Benet, partner of Mediapro (and declared independentist), and in March 2021 arrive Finestres, by the patron Sergio Ferrer-Salat (whose pharmacy owns Gelocatil).
“Although in Catalonia there has always been a long tradition of cooperatives or limited companies, it is the first time that two philanthropists bet on opening and sustaining two large bookstores. This is great news. After the years of the crisis and the avalanche of closures, the bookstores that now draw the blind are due to retirement. The pandemic has made people aware of shopping at their neighborhood bookstore and many neighbors have sponsored them. The bookstores are cultural centers of proximity“, claims Maria Carme Ferrer, president of the Catalan Booksellers Guild.
The last one to open in the Sant Antoni neighborhood was the Byron, promoted by the small publishing house Huygens. “As publishers we are seduced by going to the other side and creating the bookstore we would like to go to. At Byron we try slow down the rapid rotation of the books, that some titles coexist with the news and have a collection of well-edited titles, sometimes from small publishers that go unnoticed but are a delight “, explains the editor and now bookseller Mariana Sarrias. Difana and with metal and wood shelves , the minimalism de la Byron contrasts with the warmth of the sofas and the fireplace, which in just a few weeks have already become a claim and icon, especially on Instagram.
In the alleys of Barcelona, in the void left by La Negra y Criminal in 2015, Fahrenheit 451, a traveling bookstore in the shape of book-truck who was born in Sitges and did not miss festivals and cultural events. “A lot of people come to see how the place has changed. Our catalog is more extensive: there is a lot of narrative, science fiction, essays, anthropology … “, points out the bookseller Sergio Lled, who has replaced the criminal corpse shape in black ribbon on the floor by books flying on the wall next to autumn leaves.
To these resistance libraries (“there is a component of romanticism, yes “, admits Mariana Sarrias, hence the choice of Byron as a name), the macrolibreres are added in the center of the city: Ona Llibres, with 1,000 square meters spread over two floors (upstairs there is a splendid space with books from artist or antiques that can only be touched with gloves, and that looks like a museum of modern art, and Finestres, of 800 square meters, on Diputacin street and already in works. Ona Llibres has the know-how of the veteran Montserrat beda, who already dispatched books in the original Ona of Gran Va, mythical bookstore of 1962 that closed in 2010 and, three years later, it reopened in a modest place in Greece. The irruption of Finestres -in whose founding team are the writers Kiko Amat and Marina Espasa, among others- it will also be noted in the literary scene with prizes for fiction in Catalan and Spanish (25,000 euros each) and essay scholarships (20,000 euros).
And from Barcelona to Madrid: Lata Peinada, focused on Latin American literature, has just opened a space in Malasaa just one year after its premiere in the Raval. If 2020 has brought new neighborhood or specialized bookstores such as the Italian La Piccola in Sarri, the trend was already in 2019 with the expansion of NoLlegiu al Clot (an area with hardly any bookstores), La Tribu in Sant Andreu or La Panafricana in the heart of Raval. , promoted by Senegalese editor Oumar Diallo. All literatures have their space, their own library.
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