Beneath the institutional banners that proclaim how beautiful Barcelona is—or was—another city breathes… with difficulty. Behind the shop windows of the luxury boutiques on Passeig de Gràcia, many other establishments, without queues of customers or security guards at their doors, struggle to survive. Beyond the Michelin-starred restaurants, frequented by Mobile World Congress professionals and tourists who can afford it, it's also possible to eat decently in pizzerias like Frankie Gallo Cha Cha in the Raval neighborhood.

Gaël Faye (Bujumbura, 1992) arrives late from a talk at the French Lycée in Barcelona because the students couldn't stop asking him questions about his two novels, A small country (2016; Empúries/Salamandra, 2018; trans. Mercè Ubach) and The jacaranda (2024; Salamandra, 2025; trans. Lydia Vázquez) More than two million copies of its debut were sold in the forty languages in which it can be read. of the genocide of Tutsis by Hutus in Rwanda. The jacaranda, who received the Renaudot Prize, starts again in 1994 to approach another young man, Milan: despite having grown up in Versailles, he becomes increasingly interested in Rwanda, the country his mother had to flee.