"When the mother died, at the bottom of the closet we found all her shoes and a book"

BarcelonaFor Ali Smith, reading is so important and has shaped her in such a decisive way that this Wednesday afternoon she stated, in a packed Saló de Cent of Barcelona City Hall: "Books and libraries have a relationship and significance similar to what we humans have with water. I know that three-quarters of my body is water. I suspect that three-quarters of my body is also made of books".

The fervent, at times belligerent, praise that the author of the renowned Seasonal Quartet —in Catalan published by Raig Verd— has dedicated to the power of reading began, punctually, at six in the evening. Smith declared herself a "book lover" and explained that this love has "educated" her and has ended up becoming her "life". "Books know how to return the love you feel for them —she continued—. They know how to open up your life, not just in the way flowers do, but books turn your life into an unending pleasure, a wellspring of wisdom, curiosity, knowledge, and resources, just like libraries are".

Born in 1962 in Inverness, in the Scottish Highlands, Ali Smith was able to study at university and could even have had a long career as a teacher if it hadn't been for the chronic fatigue syndrome that was diagnosed and that forced her to leave teaching. It was inevitable to think of Smith's first professional life —who debuted as an author in 1995 with Free love and other stories (in Spanish in Gatopardo)— when she recalled, through the figure of her mother, that she came from a humble background. "My mother despaired that I loved books, and at the same time felt proud of it," she stated. Due to the premature death of her father and family poverty, the writer's mother had to leave school and start working at the age of 13. "Although she always repeated that she didn't have time to read, the only thing she kept from her childhood in Ireland were two books — she said —. One was The Story of Rip van Winkle, by Washington Irving. The other was an English grammar book." At one of the most emotional moments of the speech, Smith let the audience know that her mother gave her Irving's volume when she went off to study at university. The fate of the other was even more moving. "When my mother died, at the back of the wardrobe we found all her shoes and a book — she assured —. It was the English grammar book that had accompanied her since she was little. There were all sorts of pencil annotations up to page 40. After that, there were none. It's the moment she had to leave school and work".

Without libraries we are nothing

more than 300 libraries in the Barcelona region have begun an indefinite strike due to "contempt" for the collective and "mismanagement" by the Consortium and the City Council

These words have resonated strongly in the Saló de Cent: they were spoken during the week in which more than 300 libraries in the province of Barcelona have started an indefinite strike due to "contempt" towards the collective and "poor management" by the Consortium and the City Council. "If books are an inexhaustible source of imagination, history, thought, knowledge, mystery, and inventiveness, then public libraries, open to everyone, are inexhaustible sources of imagination in community, history in community, thought in community...", she said, shortly before quoting a few phrases about the power of literature, among which was this one from Irene Solà: "Literature and stories and languages make everything possible. They can even move mountains and make them dance".

After the opening speech, Ali Smith conversed with Dolors Udina, her usual translator into Catalan, who has handled about a dozen of her books, all published by Raig Verd, including the recent A Room of One's Own Woolf (2026) and Public Libraries (2024).In relation to the latter, Udina recalled that the testimonies interspersed among the stories in the book agree in emphasizing that "the library card had been a weapon against ignorance". And she added: "Libraries are one of the most prized possessions of our society. They are the closest thing we have to a state structure".