50 years of the Catalan literary label that can be eaten

BarcelonaThe Catalan Book Week is not satisfied with the 9,000 m² it occupies at the Passeig Lluís Companys in Barcelona until Sunday and is expanding into some activities outside the venue, such as the cocktail party celebrating the 50 years of La Magrana hosted at the Maritime Museum, with the presence of some of the authors who make up the current catalog of the label, such as Montse Virgili, David Moragas, Núria Perpinyà, Aina Gatnau, and M. Mercè Cuartiella. Also Cristina Genebat, winner of the first edition of the Lo Somni award with Sorra, who shortly before the start of the party could not find, like other authors from the house, which entrance to the museum to use. "Don't worry, sooner or later we will find the way," the novelist Aniol Florensa, whom she had just met, told her rightly, shortly before meeting a future author of the house, Paula Vidal, who will debut at La Magrana at the beginning of 2027.

"Celebrating 50 years is looking back with pride, but above all it is looking forward with excitement —said Núria Cabutí, CEO of Penguin Random House, which also has labels in Catalan such as La Campana and Rosa dels Vents—. We will continue working to offer books that explain the world, that transform us, and that keep alive the reading passion that has accompanied La Magrana throughout its history". After her speech, and before a succulent avalanche of canapés, Antònia Vicens —whom La Magrana incorporated into its catalog in 2022, with Quasi un miracle. Tots els contes— recited a heartfelt tribute to reading before a large representation of authors, booksellers, and publishers. "As a child, I didn't want to be a woman; I didn't want to be a man; I didn't want to be an animal. What can I be?, I wondered. I will be a word," she admitted after explaining that although they had no books at home, she fell in love very early on with the "name of all things," which the discovery of literature, later on, thanks to the apothecary and writer Bernat Vidal i Tomàs, ended up magnifying.

From Moncada to Rojals

La Magrana published its first books for Sant Jordi in 1976. The historic publishing house, which in its first stage published novels such as Camí de sirga, by Jesús Moncada, Pedra de tartera, by Maria Barbal and Júlia, by Isabel Clara-Simó, and promoted emblematic collections of general, crime, and young adult fiction –Les Ales Esteses, La Negra, and L'Esparver–, was founded "with a clear political will by Jaume Fuster, Jordi Moners, Francesc Vidal, and Carles-Jordi Guardiola", as recalled in the catalog that all the guests at the party have taken home, by Joan Riambau, literary director of the label, which since January 2022 has been reborn thanks to the momentum that Penguin Random House has been able to give it.

"The vitality, ambition, and success of this first life of La Magrana" gave way to a second stage linked to RBA, continues Riambau, which began in 2000 and lasted two decades. The catalog of these years includes international voices as diverse as those of Philip Roth, Zadie Smith, Mark Haddon, and Irène Némirovsky, the consolidation of authors in the Catalan language such as Joan-Lluís Lluís, Imma Monsó, Joan Pons, and Miquel Pairolí, and the discovery of Marta Rojals. In a distant 2011, Primavera estiu etcèterabecame one of the sensations of the season, and the author from the Ebre region confirmed her talent three years later with L'altra, while at the same time piquing the curiosity of readers because she did not grant face-to-face interviews nor appear at any public event related to her books. This Tuesday she could have come incognito to the La Magrana party, but she was not one of the authors most expected at the photocall, considering that in 2018 she joined the Anagrama catalog with El cel no és per a tothom, her third and, for the moment, last novel.

Isidre Grau, one of the most veteran authors of the house —where he debuted in 1984 with Vent de memòria— summarized with these words the creative spirit he shared with dozens of the attendees at the party: "No matter how much I have tried to stop writing, I have realized that what makes me truly happy is to have a literary project in my head".