Ferran Garcia recommends one of the "most beautiful and sad" books he has ever read

BarcelonaWhen we ask Ferran Garcia, which has won one of the latest Llibreter Prize thanks to the novel Sau (Weeds, 2025), a book recommendation for summer reading, takes a while to find the ideal title: "First I thought of telling you Great Expectations, of Charles Dickens, in Carner's translation, because I consider it a perfect book, and the translation, too – he says. Then, the most beautiful book I have ever read, "Peter and Wendy –also known as Peter Pan–, by J.M. Barrie. But, finally, I think I'll tell you one of those I reread the most, a beautiful bramble bush from which, if you enter it, it is absolutely impossible to emerge unharmed".

Garcia takes a breath and continues: "You cannot go out healthy and save money onSoul, of Wajdi Mouawad, which in Catalan has been edited by Periscopi, translated by Anna Casassas. It is one of the most beautiful and sad, tender and raw, violent and sweet things I have ever read. In fact, anything Mouawad writes is worth reading (he is very good), especially his plays.". At the beginning of the book, the protagonist, Wahhch Debch, discovers the corpse of his wife, who has been murdered in the most brutal way. Debch does not delay in being informed about the identity of the murderer and, in view of the incomprehensible police passivity, he undertakes a hunt for the man that will take him from Montreal, Quebec, to the American side of the border, through Mohawk territory. "Soul can be read in summer, in spring, in autumn or in winter, it can be read now, yesterday or tomorrow, this year, last year or the next, you can read it if you are sad or if you are happy, if you don't feel like reading or if you feel like it a lot – Garcia assures. It has the shape of a book but in reality it is a stepping stone, a portal that will take you to places within yourself you didn't know existed, and, honestly, what more can you ask of a book?"