'The black ball' rolls through Antinous

BarcelonaToday, in 2026, a bookstore is not just a bookstore. And a bookseller is much more than a bookseller. There is a commitment, a perspective, an attitude that goes beyond them, that defines them, that makes them become priority cultural and civic agents. The dissemination of ideas, of social concerns and of the citizen's worries embodied in books, surely the greatest and most relevant institution of knowledge that humanity has ever produced. Put like that, it sounds a bit grandiloquent, but, at street level, it is immediately clear. Transparent. You only need to enter Antinous, on Casanova street almost at the corner with Consell de Cent, to realize it. You only need to talk for a while with the siblings Josep and Maria Vitas to see it clearly.

Next year it will be thirty years since they opened; it was on Josep Anselm Clavé street. And now it has been ten years since they have been in the heart of the Eixample. Or, better said, of the Gaixample, the portion of the Barcelona neighborhood where the city's LGBTI life is concentrated. Antinous is a neighborhood institution, of course. In fact, it is one for the city and, of course, for all the queer culture and experience that beats there. They are almost the only specialized bookstore in the State. They only have one counterpart, Berkana, in Madrid. On their shelves, 80% of the subject matter is LGBTIQ+. 20% is generalist, since they also have regular clientele from the neighborhood who want to buy the latest hit. “We cannot not have the latest from Maruja Torres!”, exclaims Josep. The same happens with children's and young adult literature, a couple of shelves well filled.

If you enter Antinous feeling indecisive, it is most likely that you will leave with a barrage of recommendations and profitable stimuli. There are classics and moderns, new trends and essential authors. What is hitting the mark now? Josep shows me three. Tengo miedo torero,by Pedro Lemebel, the story of a Chilean queer activist who opposed Pinochet. Las malas,by Camila Sosa Villada, which addresses trans themes and is already in its fourteenth edition. La mala costumbre,by Alana S. Portero, which links class consciousness with gender and trans. All three sell like hotcakes. He also shows us the graphic novels by Sebas Martín, Bailando and Bandera,always connected with historical memory.

They have six LGBTIQ+ essay bookcases, while when they started there was barely one. This speaks very eloquently of how the subject has been “coming out of the closet”, of how inexorable visualization has appeared on the country’s public, social, and intellectual agenda. Antinous, like all bookstores, not only sells books: it is also a driving agent, an essential cultural focus.

It is noticeable, for example, with the number of presentations they organize. The three monthly book clubs will be fixed starting this season. “Nowadays it is not feasible to conceive of a bookstore that is not also a social outreach asset”. When they opened, in a distant 1997, next to the port and taking advantage of the proximity to the Casal Lambda, the generic concept was “gay and lesbian”, today it is LGBTIQ+, which encompasses not only homosexuality but also bisexuality, trans, non-binary, etc. They recommend a couple of books that can help to better understand the reality. For example, LGTBQué? Una guía para entender(nos). Why did they leave their initial location? Simply, the neighborhood expelled them.

There are classics that it would be unthinkable not to find at Antinous. Oscar Wilde, of course; also Truman Capote, Simone de Beauvoir, Terenci Moix and, naturally, Federico García Lorca. They have everything imaginable of his: essays, biography, theater, poetry... And the poster for La bola negra,which frames the understandable boom moment we are currently living through. Other booms? The books by Rachel Reid that have given rise to the Más que rivales series. Eva Baltasar, of course, is also an essential one. Icons? Marilyn Monroe, La Veneno, Sara Montiel, Lola Flores... They all have a presence at Antinous. And plenty of merchandise: bracelets, pins, badges, towels and all kinds of tote bags. Essential, the one with the flag! “You have to be up to date at all times”, exclaims Josep with enthusiasm. “There is a very interesting generational shift within queer literature and it is the bookseller's job to stay up to date in order to be able to promote it and recommend it”. What a fabulous job and what a privilege for a city to have a bookstore like this.