Reality insists on changing the plans of novelist Richard Ford (Jackson, 1944). If a couple of years ago, coinciding with the publication of the fifth and last book starring Frank Bascombe, Be mine (2023; Sé mía in the Spanish translation published by Anagrama), he hinted that he was giving up writing, he is in Barcelona presenting a new work, How I got on (2026; En palabras sencillas in Spanish by Feltrinelli), an essay of about a hundred pages that starts with a stimulating question: how can we live decently in a world where politics tends to be dishonest?

One of the most peculiar rituals of rural Galicia is the one that ends at the sanctuary of Santo André de Teixido, located in the municipality of Cedeira, in the province of A Coruña. “To San Andrés de Teixido goes the dead who did not go alive,” says a well-known saying. "He who does not go in life goes when he is dead," recalls David Roas (Barcelona, 1965), professor of literary theory at the Autonomous University of Barcelona and author of a dozen books of fantastic stories – a genre to which he has also dedicated numerous studies – the latest of which is Territorios" (Páginas de Espuma, 2026).

"As soon as the storm calms down, I will sacrifice myself," proclaimed this Thursday, with a serene voice, the Turk Adnan Özer (Tekirdag, 1957) at the beginning of the 41st International Poetry Festival of Barcelona in an almost full Palau de la Música.

"If you'll take one piece of advice, don't miss this book," he assured a few days ago Keret appears punctually on his computer screen in Tel Aviv, the city where he grew up and where he still lives and teaches creative writing. It's eleven in the morning, but he's been up for hours: he has a habit of going out at a quarter past seven to take a walk on the beach, which is ten minutes from his home. "I'm sorry I haven't been to Barcelona in so long. Maybe with the next book they'll invite me," he admits, before offering a small sample of his irony. "For now, with things the way they are in my country, it's normal for you to be afraid of someone like me coming."

"Iberia resembles a bull's hide stretched from West to East in length, with the front parts facing East, and from North to South in width. It is approximately six thousand stadia in length; in width, in the widest band, it is about five thousand, although there are places below three thousand, especially in the Pyrenees, which are on the eastern side." These words serve as an introduction to the third book of the seventeen that make up the ambitious Geography of Strabo (c.63 BC–24 AD), focused on exploring the current Iberian Peninsula more than 2,000 years ago. The author delves into its main cities, temples, and rivers, but also into the peoples that inhabited it, among whom were the Astures, the Lusitanians, the Celtiberians, the Cerretani, and the Layetani. What did the ancient Greeks know about us? To what extent have we changed?

Although she has to use crutches due to a recent fall, Marta Pessarrodona (Terrassa, 1941) retains the energy and enthusiasm that have accompanied her for decades. She opens the door to her home in Valldoreix once again to ARA for a double reason: she has been chosen as the opening speaker for the new edition of the Barcelona Poesia festival, which takes place from May 14 to 21, and she is presenting a new poetry book, Re(visions), which is about to hit bookstores. Published by Viena five years after Tot m'admira (2021), it revisits the author's family members, friends, and loves, including her last dog, Queta, who died in an accident just over a year ago.

"I am no longer in love with you": with these words the narrator's partner ends the eleven-year relationship in Islandia (Destino, 2026), the latest novel by Manuel Vilas. Once again, after the great impact of Ordesa (Alfaguara, 2018) and being a finalist for the Planeta award with Alegría (2019), the writer born in Barbastro in 1962 draws on his own life experience to tell a story of rupture that leaves the protagonist devastated. Will he be able to pick himself up again? Will he be able to find love once more, having suffered two separations that have caused him so much pain? Although Vilas does not shy away from chapters motivated by rage and misunderstanding, Islandia is a book that tries to help the author relearn to look at the world with a spark of optimism.

The elevator that goes up to the headquarters of Combel, a seal of children's literature from the Casals publishing house, is a gateway to another dimension. Upon reaching the corresponding floor, the visitor comes face to face with the cardboard version of the characters that delight the youngest readers at home: Agus Pianola, protagonist of the series Agus and the Monsters, the robot Bitmax, the endearing cat Mixifú, and the mysterious Ticniks. Inside a small room are the creators of the seal's latest and tempting proposal, the adaptation of the Iliad prepared by translator Pau Sabaté (Barcelona, 1989) and illustrator Arnal Ballester (Barcelona, 1955). The volume condenses, in just under 200 pages, all the magic and darkness of one of the literary classics par excellence. The epic poem attributed to Homer and dating from the 8th century BC aims to win over new generations of fans as it did, in 2008, with the adaptation for Combel of the Odyssey by Albert Jané and illustrated by Pep Montserrat.

It has been twenty years since Jordi Llavina (Gelida, 1968) debuted as a poet with La corda del gronxador (Moll, 2006). The author celebrates the anniversary by selecting his work in verse in El test de la flor malva, published by Pagès: the volume, 200 pages long and with a prologue by Pere Ballart, collects a representative sample of the ten poetry books he has published so far, including Vetlla (3i4, 2012), El magraner (Cossetània, 2020) and Un llum que crema (Proa, 2023).

Even with the memory of having lived "the unforgettable experience" of her first Sant Jordi, Audur Ava Ólafsdóttir (Reykjavik, 1958) strolls through the garden of Club Editor, the publishing house that has already published three of her unclassifiable novels, where an unwavering faith in the human race shines. Accustomed to the volcanic landscape of Iceland, Ólafsdóttir cannot help but marvel at the ease with which trees and flowers of all kinds grow in southern Europe, the setting of her best-known novel, Rosa candida –available in some thirty languages–, until now unpublished in Catalan, translated by Macià Riutort, as well as La veritat sobre la llum and Edèn, with which she won the Llibreter prize 2025.

Sant Jordi has once again overflowed Catalonia with the magic formula that never fails: books for all tastes —from the exquisite Nobel laureate Han Kang to young authors in love with success, such as Gil Pratsobrerroca, David Uclés and Inma Rubiales—, roses at prices ranging from 4 to 25 euros, and the contagious enthusiasm of millions of citizens who have taken to the streets ready to have a good time.

For 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 dragon is one of the quintessential fantastic animals in the history of literature. Its power has fascinated millions of readers, young and old, spurred by the creativity of novelists and poets from all over, but the image it presents has been changing: the dragon can be menacing, dangerous, and violent, although also, on some occasions, benign and compassionate, and can even possess a wisdom superior to that of humans. "I am fire. I am death," proclaims Smaug, the imposing and fearsome dragon with whom Bilbo Baggins must verbally contend in The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien. "Never give up, and sooner or later you will find good luck," recommends Fuixur, the majestic white dragon, to the intrepid Atreyu in The Neverending Story, by Michael Ende. For Ursula K. Le Guin, who expanded and renewed the abilities of these enigmatic animals in the Earthsea novel cycle, dragons represent the human capacity to imagine: "If dragons frighten us it is because we tend to consider the works of imagination as suspicious or even despicable," the author defended in the article Why, as Americans, are we afraid of dragons? (1974).

The Catalan Book Chamber published this Monday the list of best-selling books in the week before Sant Jordi in fiction, non-fiction, and children's and young adult books, both in Catalan and Spanish. As usual, new releases are climbing to the top positions.

Can we live with our dead present without them tormenting us, especially considering that some as significant as the older sister or father have committed suicide? This is one of the driving questions of A Truce That Is Not Peace, the new book by Miriam Toews (Steinbach, 1964), published in Catalan by Les Hores, translated by Octavi Gil Pujol. In the hands of many writers, the autobiographical material she unfolds would be mired in the swamp of traumas. The Canadian author, however, knows how to combine sadness and longing with a surprising sense of humor. She can just as easily rescue an anecdote from the Mennonite Christian community where she grew up as recall a funny family episode from the past – such as the robbery in Ecuador –, mention a book that has recently interested her, and draw the reader into her current reality: the author has had a small house built on the property where her mother, one of her daughters, her partner, and their two children live.

For Sant Jordi, there is life beyond the best-selling books, publishing phenomena, and circumstantial trends. You just need to take a stroll through a well-run bookstore to verify that the good health of the Catalan publishing sector lies in the explosive diversity of proposals and in the quality and demand of many of these proposals. We choose just ten that we believe would be worth reaching more readers.

It so happens that, with a few weeks' difference, two of the great architects of the Tusquets publishing house have died. First was the poet and professor Antoni Marí (1944-2026), who besides being an in-house author had directed the Catalan collection, L'Ull de Vidre, and the poetry collection, Nuevos Textos Sagrados, and this Friday it was its founder and literary director for decades, Beatriz de Moura, according to the publishing house, which said goodbye to her remembering her as "a brilliant and unprejudiced woman, cosmopolitan and feisty, a precursor of so many things and the soul of the publishing house".

When Transbordo en Moscú, the last volume of Las tres leyes del movimiento, Eduardo Mendoza (Barcelona, 1943) thought it was time to retire. "The best thing I could do was retire, because I had already written everything I wanted to –he recalls at Casa del Libro in Barcelona–. Then I started to get bored and thought I would do something else without forgetting that I was in injury time." That was five years ago and, since then, Mendoza has published Tres enigmas para la Organización (2024) and, just this week, La intriga del funeral inconveniente, both published by Seix Barral, like the rest of his work. "Eduardo has often considered stopping writing and has even announced it, but we are lucky that he has done the opposite afterwards –admits Elena Ramírez, his editor–. Last year was very hectic for him, with everything that the Princess of Asturias Award and several trips entailed, including the Guadalajara Book Fair. Nothing suggested he was working on a new novel".

In a slightly more just world, the jury of the award to which Dolors Miquel (Lleida, 1960) submitted El pit adormit at the end of 2024 would have proclaimed her book as the winner. It didn't happen that way, but the work has finally seen the light of day: in almost 500 pages of impressive intensity and ambition, the poet –author of some twenty volumes, including Haikús del camioner (Empúries, 1999) and El guant de plàstic rosa (Edicions 62, 2016)– combines various narrative threads, such as the detection and evolution of the cancer that was diagnosed five years ago, the chronicle of how Catalan poetry was reborn in the late nineties thanks to an alternative circuit of readings, reflections on misogyny – that of the past and that of the present – and fragments in which family memories intertwine with a passion for reading and writing.