From November 29 to December 7, all the spotlights of the literary world will be on one place: Barcelona. The city is the guest of honor at the Guadalajara International Book Fair (FIL), the most influential Spanish-language publishing event on the planet.
With an investment of almost two million euros and a poetic slogan, “Vindran les flors” ( The flowers will come), the Catalan capital not only travels to Mexico to showcase its legacy, but also to present a literary template that mixes classic authors of Barcelona literature with new voices that speak of the city with new perspectives.
The curator of the program, Anna Guitart, has selected a delegation of more than 70 authors that reflects this plurality. It is not a still photo of the past, but a moving portrait of today’s literary Barcelona, with gender parity and a balance between Catalan and Spanish. The result is a program with more than 100 activities ranging from concerts and exhibitions to debates on science and the city.
The authors from Barcelona who are going to FIL Guadalajara and what books you need to know about theirs
The list of 70 authors is a reflection of the city’s mestizo identity. Along with established figures such as Carme Riera or academics like Rafael Argullol, the delegation includes adopted Barcelonians who write about the city from abroad, such as the acclaimed Irish author Colm Tóibín, or Latin American authors based here, such as the Chilean Paulina Flores or the Mexican Jordi Soler. This mix of perspectives enriches a panorama that also includes the powerful generation of Spanish-language storytellers formed by Miqui Otero and Kiko Amat himself.
The program in Catalan, meanwhile, is committed to showcasing both best-selling authors such as Martí Gironell and Màrius Serra and emerging or niche voices that the Mexican public will be able to discover. This is the case of poets such as Mireia Calafell and Adrià Targa or storytellers with great critical acclaim such as Ferran Garcia and Eduard Olesti. A brave selection that seeks to explain literature as a complete ecosystem: from the greatest hits to the hidden gems.
So that you don’t get lost among so much talent, here are eight essential names to understand the literary power of the Barcelona that is presented to the world.
Eduardo Mendoza:La ciudad de los prodigios (The city of wonders)
Why you should read it: It’s impossible to understand modern Barcelona without Mendoza. With this novel, which has become a universal classic, he will inaugurate the city’s presence at FIL. It is the book that best narrates the social, urban and rogue transformation of the city between the Universal Exhibitions of 1888 and 1929. An absolute must.
Marta Orriols: Aprendre a parlar amb les plantes (Learning to talk with plants)
Why you should read it: Winner of the Premi Òmnium for the best Catalan novel, Orriols represents the strength of the new intimate narrative. This work about the grief and resilience of a neonatologist after an abrupt loss is an exercise in emotional precision that has connected with thousands of readers.
Kiko Amat: Revenge
Why you should read it: Amat is the chronicler of neighborhoods, rage and underground culture. With a style that mixes the rawness of punk with tenderness, Revancha is a brutal and honest portrait of the latent violence in the margins of the city.
Gemma Ruiz Palà: Les nostres mares (Our Seas)
Why you should read it: A journalist by training, Ruiz Palà has established herself as one of the strongest voices in the recovery of women’s historical memory. This critically acclaimed book is a tribute to the generation of women who, from anonymity, raised the working-class Barcelona of the 20th century.
Javier Cercas: Soldiers of Salamis
Why you should read it: Cercas is one of the most widely read and respected Spanish-language authors in the world. His ability to fuse investigative journalism, fiction and moral essay is a game changer. Soldados de Salamina is not only his masterpiece, but the perfect gateway to his literary universe. A phenomenon that is still going strong.
Victoria Szpunberg: El pes d’un cos (The weight of a thing)
Why you should read it: As a playwright and novelist, Szpunberg explores the boundaries between theater and narrative. In this work she takes the reader into a terrain as complex as it is universal: care, illness and family tensions. Her participation in the FIL confirms the good health of Catalan playwriting.
Juana Dolores: Beneïts a l’escenari del jo
Why she should be read: Poet, actress and cultural agitator. Juana Dolores is the embodiment of the most performative, political and noisy literature. Her verses are direct, uncomfortable and brilliant, a fierce criticism of the system from a class and gender perspective and a voice that always generates controversy.
Xavier Bosch: Algú com tu
Why you should read it: Bosch is synonymous with best seller in Catalonia. With novels like this one, winner of the Premi Ramon Llull, he has demonstrated an extraordinary ability to connect with the general public through stories of love, intrigue and universal emotions. She represents the muscle of popular literature and its capacity to create readers.
Carlos Zanón: Carvalho: Identity Problems
Why you should read it: Zanón had the titanic challenge of resurrecting Manuel Vázquez Montalbán’s detective Pepe Carvalho, and he did it with mastery. He is one of the great exponents of the current Barcelona crime novel, a genre that is part of the city’s literary DNA. A must for lovers of crime novels.
Irene Pujadas: Els desperfectes (The Defects)
Why she should be read: Recognized by critics and booksellers, Pujadas represents a new generation of female authors. Her stories are precise, sharp and surprising, capable of revealing the extraordinary in the everyday. The future of Catalan narrative.
Miqui Otero: Simon
Why you should read it: Winner of the El Ojo Crítico Prize, Simón is the great generational novel about Olympic and post-Olympic Barcelona. Otero narrates with humor and nostalgia the story of a boy who grows up wanting to be someone else, turning the city into just another character. The book that has best told the lives of those who grew up in the 90s.
Beyond books: María Arnal and Kim, present at the FIL
Barcelona’s presence at FIL is not limited to literature. The cultural program includes concerts by Sílvia Pérez Cruz, Maria Arnal and Marcel Bagés, Queral Lahoz, Lucía Fumero and Kiko Veneno.
Alsoexhibitions such as the exhibition dedicated to the work of the cartoonist Kim, winner of the Grand Prix of the Comic Fair. In addition, debates and round tables will connect literature with science, architecture and the social challenges of the city.
In short, as stated by the Councilor for Culture Xavier Marcé, this is an opportunity to show that Barcelona’s literature continues to be the best reflection of a vibrant, complex and constantly reinventing city.
The gastronomic FIL: the Barcelona restaurant that will travel to the FIL
Barcelona’s gastronomy will also be one of the main protagonists at FIL Guadalajara, with chef Gerard Bellver, chef of Jiribilla as the main representative. He will be responsible for designing the menu of the inaugural meal, the most important social gathering of the fair that brings together seven hundred people. In addition, Bellver will prepare the proposal for the Gastronomic Festival, a buffet that will offer a selection of typical dishes of Barcelona’s cuisine at the Hotel Barceló during the nine days of the event.
The choice of Bellver is ideal, as he is a chef who perfectly masters both culinary cultures. Born in Barcelona and trained in gastronomic temples such as El Bulli or Arzak, he lived for 28 years in Mexico, where he worked in reference restaurants such as Biko. In 2023 he returned to his hometown to open his own project, the Jiribilla restaurant in Sant Antoni, where he combines the best of Catalan and Mexican traditions, becoming the perfect ambassador for this event.