Gràcia takes the little literary gem from Raval

BarcelonaIn 2025, the city suffered yet another blow to Barcelona's historic commercial fabric. On December 31st, the three premises of the legendary Cáceres furniture store in Plaça Revolució de Gràcia closed their doors for good. Adding to the grief of the loss, the neighborhood residents worried about what kind of business would occupy those spaces. Well, one of the businesses that will soon take over one of those ground-floor units in the square is the Nocturama bookstore, a small literary gem that, after three and a half years in the heart of the Raval neighborhood, is packing its bags for the city center.

The person behind Nocturama is Marina Rodríguez. After years building her career in various bookstores in the city, such as Casa del Libro, Ventanas, and Ona, three and a half years ago she decided to embark on her own project and open her own business. She did so in the Raval, where she has lived for over a decade. She did it, she explains, despite being aware of the difficulties a small bookstore faced in getting off the ground and establishing itself in one of the city's lowest-income neighborhoods, where, therefore, many people have very little money to spare for reading. However, Rodríguez managed to create a strong community through her events and book clubs. She also offered a children's catalog to attract the neighborhood's youngest residents. The network of loyal customers who came to Peu de la Creu Street for the bookseller's advice was extensive. "I have the best neighbors in the world," smiles Rodríguez, whose heart is currently torn between the excitement of the new project in Gràcia and the sadness of leaving behind what has been her home for the past few years.

Rodríguez explains that the move is motivated by the fact that over the past year, she's seen sales plummet, threatening to make the business unviable. And yet, as will happen now in Gràcia, she encountered a landlord who preferred a business of interest to the neighborhood to being able to charge a higher rent. However, the slim profit margin on books means she has to sell a lot to survive, hence the decision to leave her beloved Raval neighborhood for a busier area.

"I'm not going that far. It's just three metro stops," she tells the customers who come to say goodbye these days. They all promise to come and see her. Many told her this very Wednesday night, during the toast she made with her most loyal customers before lowering the shutters for the last time on Peu de la Creu street. In a few days, the toast will be in Gràcia to raise another one. Because while in the Raval neighborhood they lament the loss of a space that in the last three years had become a symbol of the resilience of local businesses, in the Vila district—which recently lost the Ona bookstore—they celebrate the arrival of Nocturama after the recent influx of ice cream shops. It's true what they say, happiness varies from place to place.