Translated with excellence by Albert Nolla, Piercing is a first-class novel written by the Japanese filmmaker and writer Ryu Murakami (1952). In the prologue —titled 'You are a strange child, and when you grow up you will go mad'— Jordi Nopca describes the author as one of the great references of psychothriller, "a literary subgenre in which psychopaths have as much weight as their pursuers and victims". The story begins with a minuscule and domestic gesture —a father waking up at night beside his daughter Rie's crib— and, in a matter of lines, turns it into a scene of extreme anguish. What seemed like a moment of paternal vigilance in a Tokyo home becomes a nocturnal ritual governed by a fixed idea: the possibility of plunging an ice pick into the creature's flesh. He does not do it; but what matters is that he contemplates the idea with a chilling lucidity.

"Food is love. People keep saying it, I hear it more and more often, and I know it's true. But for me it also meant that love was eating." With these words begins one of the most peculiar books of the season, Bread and milkThe author, Karolina Ramqvist (Gothenburg, 1976), is a Swedish writer whose books address themes such as female identity, motherhood, and family relationships. It was obvious, then, that at some point she would have to address the topic of home cooking.

The brand new Gata Maula publishing house has just published his third book, At dusk, by Hwang Sok-yong (Changchun, 1943), a polysemic title that refers both to the twilight of life and to the opportune moment to put out fires, or also to the state of traffic between day and night.

This Sant Jordi, in Girona's Plaça Catalunya, there will be a new book stall representing the new generation of Girona publishers. It is formed by Cap de Brot and Gata Maula, two young independent publishing houses founded this year with a similar purpose: to publish good books in Catalan and to do so and promote it from Girona. Nearby, heading towards La Rambla, Laia Regincós will be at the Ela Geminada stall. Despite being only thirty years old, she has been managing the business for six years. de facto This publishing house was founded in 2011, but this will be the first to do so as an owner. groupie She sat in the front row of the presentation of the two publishing houses. "For many years, I felt very alone," she says. Now, far from competing with each other, they are advocating for alliances and helping each other where necessary.

"Things don't last forever: if you have a dream you must pursue it," says Aarón Sánchez Tolosa what he thought when in 2022 the historic Geli bookstore in Girona The bookseller has closed the shop for good, after 143 years of history. The bookseller had been there for seven and a half years. Outside the shop he shared his love of good literature with another bookseller, in this case from Librería 22, Cristina Sagrera. "Geli's disappearance spurred us on to finally get our own project going," he says. She left her job. He became part of the team at Librería 22.