A massive, eventful and record-breaking Sant Jordi

BarcelonaSant Jordi's Day is like the Amazon rainforest. In "stifling times" like these, a festival dedicated to reading invites everyone "to breathe together," this year's town crier recalled early this morning at the Virreina Palace. Mexican writer Cristina Rivera Garza. The stallholders were already starting to sell some of the two million copies they have been selling until nightfall throughout Catalonia: in the absence of definitive data, the estimate made by the Book Chamber at nightfall again points to a new record, which would be around 26 million euros (0.6 more than last year). Rose sellers have also made a killing—in cash, using the dataphone, and using Bizum—because Sant Jordi also invites the traditional gesture of floral love. And with a renewed component of protest culminating in the demonstration for language.

The Amazon metaphor could also be applied to Sant Jordi in another sense: the overwhelming success of the day has a more disturbing side, as is the case with the progressive deforestation of the largest rainforest in the world. It is a side that has to do with the overcrowding of the day—a million people pass through the center of Barcelona alone—with the touristification—numerous groups, open-mouthed, studied the hive of people on Passeig de Gràcia, letting out the occasional amazing—and also with the endless lines to get all kinds of books signed, where literary skill is all too often anecdotal or even nonexistent. Capitalism has known how to swallow up the celebration—"it's the day of the book, not of literature," is repeated in the publishing industry—and has turned it into a profitable business, with bookstores turning over as much in a single day as they do in the following month and a half.

Search for "calm bubbles"

However, Sant Jordi is a day that, inexplicably, retains that magic that makes each year both the same and different from the previous one. "It's a frenetic day of chasing bubbles of calm," he said. Víctor García Tur, Sant Jordi 2020 award with The water you want, which has just been published The cloisters in Comanegra. "Just to meet people you know and share a few minutes is worth it," he adds. He's right. While Francesca Giannone – Italian bestselling author – is busy signing copies of The wallet (Duomo) and novelists like Javier Cercas, Dolores Redondo and Ildefonso Falcones have to leave the stops escorted because their turn has run out and they have to leave, but they still have dozens of readers queuing up, eager for their signature (and maybe a selfie), at the stop shared by Club Editor and Arcàdia pots xerra thanks to which we were able to read recently, For the first time in Catalan, one of Theodor W. Adorno's best books, Minima MoraliaNot far away, from Ediciones del Subsuelo, Adan Kovacsics observes the indifference of passersby in his new book, The destiny of the word, while commenting that he has just put the finishing touches to his new translation into Spanish of László Krasznahorkai, Herscht 07769, "a single sentence 400 pages long." A veteran like Enrique Vila-Matas He was left standing when a reader brought him seven novels and asked him to sign them: "Don't put my name on it, maybe one day I'll sell them," he admitted.

The incredible—and healthy—diversity of Sant Jordi means that almost a thousand authors have been signing books in the streets of Barcelona. "At one stop I was between Sara Mesa and Irene Solà, and just as they kept signing, I haven't signed many," he admitted Xavier Pla, who, however, has managed to get his biography of Josep Pla, A furtive heart, has sold more than 15,000 copies in just over a year. Núria Cadenes was in charge of signing the recent In the flesh (Ara Llibres) very close to the Goncourt Prize Pierre Lemaître and ended up buying a copy of his latest novel, A radiant future (Bromera/Salamadra) to get it signed. Juan Tallón watched from the Windows as Manuela Carmena "stealed all the limelight": the former mayor of Madrid published a book of memoirs a couple of weeks ago Imagine life (Planeta, 2025).

Looking towards the neighborhoods and towards independent publishers

Amélie Nothomb, one of the big international draws of the day that would have celebrated its first Sant Jordi in Barcelona, ​​​​failed due to "last-minute health problems," commented sources from its publisher, Anagrama. Zerocalcare Queues of more than 150 meters have accumulated at Universal Còmics, in the Sant Antoni neighborhood. Axel Scheffler, the illustrator of the popular series ofThe Gruffalo —in Catalan at Bruño—has drawn monsters for dozens of children in a book signing marathon that started at the Punt y Aparte bookstore and ended at Fabre.

"Independent publishers make me suffer a little, because the big groups are recovering part of the market they had lost in recent years," says literary critic Marina Espasa. Perhaps that's why the journalist and writer Eva Piquer gave this advice through X: "Buy and give as many books as you like, but remember that there are also independent publishers." Aware that they have little to do in the midst of the crowds in central Barcelona, some authors have preferred to look towards the neighborhoods: thus, Maria Guasch, which has recently published The little vampires (L'Otra) has gone to Poble-Sec to sign a book at the La Carbonera bookstore. "On Passeig de Gràcia, as people walk by and stare at you, sitting there waiting, you feel a bit like a prostitute in Amsterdam's red-light district," she comments ironically.

The big groups are sweeping the board

In the evening, the Book Chamber made public the provisional list of best-selling titles. Although they represent only between 5 and 10% of the total—up to 70,000 different titles are sold on Sant Jordi—the results confirmed the general trends of recent weeks. The three major publishing groups of the moment—Planeta, Penguin Random House, and Abacus Futur—shared the best-sellers in both Catalan and Spanish. The latest novels by Xavier Bosch, Joël Dicker, Sílvia Soler, and Estel Solé made a dent in the Catalan fiction category. In non-fiction, the new essay by Xavier Sala i Martín took first place, followed by the memoirs of Manel Vidal Boix and Toni Cruanyes. In Spanish, María Dueñas was the best-selling author, followed by Joël Dicker and Freida McFadden. In Spanish non-fiction, however, the book about Pope Francis by Javier Cercas topped the ranking, followed by a long-seller published almost five years ago, Atomic Habits, by James Clear, and the only book published by a mid-size publisher to make it into the top three titles in this category, The bridge where the papallones live, from the neuroscientist and influencer Nazareth Castellanos, published by Siruela.