Passeig de Gràcia wins its first literary prize

BarcelonaThe history of Catalan literature is full of novels featuring Passeig de Gràcia, from Private life, by José María de Sagarra, until Broken mirror, of Mercedes Rodoreda, and The manufacturerby Dolors Monserdà. Until now, however, no fiction had taken place almost exclusively in one location. Roger Bastida (Hospitalet de Llobregat, 1990) has set himself the challenge in Passeig de Gràcia. Story of a familyFocusing on the destinies of three Catalan families—one noble, one bourgeois, and one working-class—over the last two centuries, the jury of the Santa Eulàlia Novel Prize has decided to award it. Organized by Comanegra and Àfora Focus Edicions for the past four years and endowed with 25,000 euros, the Santa Eulàlia Prize recognizes the best novel about Barcelona. In this case, the award will help to discover the young voice of Roger Bastida, who has already published three historical novels. The lizard's gaze (2017), The long festival (2020) and Under the shadow of the Washingtonia (2023), all three published by Columna. A graduate in art history, Bastida lives in Madrid, where he works as a historical consultant on series such as Temperance, Jan, Queen Victoria Eugenie and Sira And, in addition, he is a professor of the history of clothing applied to costume design for film and television at ECAM (Madrid Film and Audiovisual School). "Even though he is such a young author, good literature has no age," says Alba Cayón of Comanegra.

The shadows behind the great families

In the adventures of the three aristocratic families at the heart of Bastida's new novel, "we discover the essence of Passeig de Gràcia, beyond the postcard image it has become: it has been the stage for historical tensions and has oscillated between beauty, wealth, and social inequality," explains the author. The three main families are the Marquesses of Castelljussà, who yearn for a world lost within city walls; the Massanas, bourgeois who amassed their fortunes in Cuba through sugar production and the sweat of slaves; and the Farrés, who arrive in Barcelona to work for the newly rich.

"I'm interested in the small stories that don't appear in the grand narrative," Bastida continues. "Using all the private clippings I consult, I construct novels set in the past that eschew first-person narratives and present a series of characters who can speak to us, because I have written Passeig de Gràcia consciously from a 21st-century perspective, even though it takes place in another time." The three families in the book are related to each other and to some of the city's great figures, milestones, and conflicts. They are three stories that intertwine in a narrative marked by impossible loves, meteoric rises, and heartbreaking falls—some of which are common in these families. "The novel is not lacking," he continues. Passeig de Gràcia It's a story about that power that allows 10% of families to be at the head of the remaining 90%."

"It's one of the first novels I've read from Barcelona that has the materiality of the fragile, because it's full of stories that are seemingly unconnected, and yet here, we feel as tableau vivant"Where everything ends up being connected," commented Fèlix Riera, from Àfora Focus. "Passeig de Gràcia may be an emblematic place, but above all, it's material in this book. Thanks to Bastida, we can hear this promenade through the external architecture of such well-known names as Gaudí or Sagnier, but also through the interiors."

In the three previous editions, the Santa Eulàlia Novel Prize has been awarded to Lluís-Anton Baulenas, Sylvia Lagarda-Mata and Maria Carme Roca.