This novel was born during a conversation among friends after a meal, inspired by the testimony of one of their mothers. It's an unknown, harsh, and anonymous story that portrays the inner workings of families who "lived well" under the Franco regime in Girona. It also marks the debut in the genre of lawyer Benet Salellas, former CUP deputy and currently leading the defense of Santos Cerdánand a finalist for the 45th Justo M. Casero Short Novel Prize. "I think we all tend to write what we like to read," he explains about the project's genesis. "I love fiction; I studied Greek philology before studying law. I've always had a bit of a cultured side, and I was challenged to try to write a novel. I wanted it to be anonymous, so if it's validated, I'll feel more empowered in some way."

Philosopher and novelist Arià Paco (Igualada, 1993) has found in fiction the medium to explore the relationships of his generation. After receiving the Roc Boronat Award in 2022 for Coward, old woman, so wild (Amsterdam), the writer has been awarded this year with the 10th Anagrama Books for his third novel, Game theory, which traces how a Catalan millennium lives and thinks – and overthinks – guilt and desire.

The night I finished my first novel, as I was printing it (I could hear the printer spitting out pages in the background), I had a panic attack.

Xavier Grasset's first French kiss was with a hamburger. "With a girl from Hamburg," the journalist explained, recalling that elusive yet unforgettable first summer love. He confessed this to the audience at Ver-MOT, held during vermouth time on the terrace of the Taberna de El Foment in Girona as part of the MOT literary festival, this year dedicated to love in all its forms and meanings. Grasset shared a conversation with two authors of a debut book: journalist Agnès Marquès, who has published the novel Nobody knows I'm here, and Glòria Gasch, editor who has jumped to the other side of the profession, that of authors, with the publication ofNow, and every morningThey had to be the authors of a first book because it was about discussing "the first time" in literature and in life. Agnès Marquès explained the reason for her debut as a novelist: "I dedicate myself to journalism because I like to tell stories, and in literature, stories are also told, in this case through the artifice of fiction. They are connecting vessels." But the natural transition from journalism to literature did not prevent her from experiencing the vertigo of a blank page, the obsession with rewriting the text, and the doubts about what she had written, which editor Gloria Gasch (in her role as editor of Columna) dispelled with encouraging advice: Marquès also discovered the fear of the last moment, when the book is at the printers and there is no possibility of amendment: "Can't we stop the machines?"

Gerard Guix (Vic, 1975) is a writer and playwright. He won the 2022 Joaquim Ruyra Prize with the youth novel A lighthouse at the end of the world. Now he has published the second part, Beyond the end of the world.

He lived in Tona until the fifth year of primary school and in the sixth year they moved to Vic. "I went to the Sagrado Corazón. I was a good student, a good boy. When I was older, in high school, not so much, because I got bored." He did vocational training at the Vic Institute. "Electricity and electronics, because my parents said I was going to study something until I could go to Barcelona to do image and sound, which was what I wanted." And after school? "In Tona I played football, but I didn't like it at all. In Vic, IT, with those giant computers... But I don't remember many extracurricular activities."

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Priscilla Morris (United Kingdom, 1973) lives between Ireland and Romanyà de la Selva, but spent all the summers of her childhood in Sarajevo, her mother's hometown. Morris was 19 years old when the Bosnian war broke out and her grandparents and other relatives were trapped in the capital, which remained under siege for 1,425 days in what is known as the longest siege in modern history. Now she recounts these experiences in Black butterflies (Periscope, 2024; translated into Catalan by Marc Rubió), a debut novel that she has spent thirteen years writing and which has earned her many accolades. Among them, a nomination for the Women's Prize 2023 and a place among the 10 best historical fiction books of 2024 seconds The New York Times.

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