Just over five years ago, Andreu Martín left Barcelona, ​​the city he had lived in since his birth in 1949, and settled in Sant Cugat del Vallès. Not even the idyllic calm of the street where he lives with his wife—the young neighbor downstairs "plays the piano like an angel," he assures—has managed to slow his creative pace. "There isn't a year that goes by that I don't publish a book," he admits. "If you want to make a living from writing and you haven't written a book, best-seller, you have to know something: you'll have to work hard."

The writer's career paths Andreu Martín (Barcelona, 1949) and journalist David Guzman (Barcelona, 1978) have been recognized by the Catalan Book WeekThe fair will be held from September 19th to 28th on Passeig Lluís Companys, a location that was tested last year and yielded positive results, with almost 100,000 visitors. "We've experienced enormous growth and brought Catalan books to the city center," said Ilya Pérdigo, president of the Catalan Language Publishers Association and the event's organizer, on Tuesday. In the next edition, the Week will have more booths, a greater presence of labels, and more exhibitors. "These are record numbers. We're convinced it's a major national event, and we want to reflect that," said Cristina Domènech, the initiative's director. In addition to the booths, new spaces will be added, such as a reading corner and a language tent, "to improve the visitor experience."

"I've made many attempts to retire, but I'm running out of ideas," he admits. Andreu Martín at the Obaga bookstore in Barcelona. The 76-year-old author has just published Everything was going well until now., his tenth book on crims.cat, a collection that he inaugurated with Story of death in 2012. This is the second time that Martín has written a novel with Joan Miquel Capell, who was a Mosso d'Esquadra (Spanish police officer) for more than three decades and currently teaches a course on organized crime and terrorism at the University of Barcelona.