Pep Parés recommends a criminal intrigue about Ramon Llull

BarcelonaThe actor and activist Pep Parés goes to bed every day an hour before he wants to fall asleep to have enough time to read. He likes novels and essays, especially thought on contemporary life, such as the Manual of Civility by Victòria Camps and Salvador Giner or The Art of the Mind by Francesc Bofill, "a former student of Montserrat with whom I coincided in the La Claca company, who had extraordinary culture and wrote proverbs, quotes and aphorisms from all over the world". "It's one of the books that have marked me," he assures. Together they made the mythical show Mori el Merma, a free adaptation of Ubú Roi with puppets by Joan Miró, "the first profane work that entered the Liceu in 1977", says the actor.

Now he has on his bedside table Everything you need to know about life by Enrique Rojas. "I don't tell you anything, with that title! —he says, laughing—. But it's good because it talks about couples, children, and it makes you remember things from life that you had forgotten".

But the novel that has captivated him lately is The Sand Staircase (La Campana), by his friend and prolific writer David Cirici, who was the screenwriter for the series that made Parés popular, Oliana Molls i l'astràlec de bronze. Cirici's latest title is a historical, spiritual and mystery novel "that explores what Ramon Llull's life could have been, mixing the intrigue and detective novel with episodes from his life that were true," he summarizes. The novel uses Josep, a Mallorcan slave of Muslim origin who enters Ramon Llull's service, and the nun Auda as narrators. Both bear witness to the poet's spiritual transformation, while trying to find out who is responsible for the murder that has occurred in the monastery. "I like everything David writes. There are authors I always read, like Josep Ramoneda. I studied Contemporary History at university, even though I later went down other paths...", he recalls.