Ignasi Moreta, the friend and editor who makes the world a more habitable place

BarcelonaI met Ignasi Moreta in 2017, a year full of contrasts in my life: a referendum was won, but a country was lost; and Ordre i Aventura lost the elections to the board of the Ateneu Barcelonès, but I gained a handful of dear friends. Ignacio is one of them.

For those who don't know him, Ignacio is the founder, literary director and editor of Fragments, An independent Catalan publishing house that publishes classics and essays in the humanities, primarily philosophy and religion. He holds two doctorates, is a professor at the UAB, and is the author of two books for the publisher: Don't Get Ashes Covered. Thought and Religion in Joan Maragall(2010) and You shall not take the name of God in vain (2023); he is also a member of the editorial committee that publishes Maragall's complete works.

I met him when he started dating my friend (and even better writer) Anna Punsoda. They soon began living together, and since we were practically neighbors, he often invited me over for dinner. Ignacio is one of the most cultured people I know, and he also makes a great gazpacho and some equally successful creamed vegetables. At first, I felt insecure about all that culture and his Catalan, which is better than Pompeu Fabra's. I soon discovered that, behind his erudition, lay a great humanity. He is a humble man from Barcelona, very entertaining, and an inexhaustible source of anecdotes about the Catalan literary world.

I once brought a flirt to his house, a story that made no sense, one of those stories from my thirties that ended up in a book. Ignacio's terrified face was the alarm bell I needed: that very night I decided I'd had enough of all this nonsense. Since then, whenever I like someone (although it's becoming more difficult for me; it must be perimenopause), I ask myself: what would Ignacio think? He's become my Pep Conciencia of romantic love.

Today I write these lines back from the inauguration of the new Espai Fragmenta, a meeting point for the entire community of readers that the publishing house has gathered over the years. Ignacio, like the good Renaissance man that he is, has not only filled the space with books and words full of meaning (which we may soon read in an essay entitled Praise of the platform), but he has made the shelves where the catalogue is displayed himself, with a screwdriver and hammer, like a 21st century Saint Joseph.

I would like to finish by recounting the words of the zoologist and primatologist Jane Goodall, who died this week at the age of 91: "You can't live a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do has an impact, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make." Ignasi Moreta, like Goodall, is one of those people who work every day to make a better world. I feel fortunate to be her friend and to be able to experience it firsthand. From this platform, I only ask that they return to Can Fanga soon; I miss them, and in the capital, we don't have enough of pure Barcelonans to have them exiled to the harsh lands of the country!