The book club that only reads books aboard a ship

Blanca Pujals became an editor through a brave decision. She had grown tired of her work as a lawyer and enrolled in a master's degree in editing, which was what she had always wanted to do as a child: live surrounded by books. From her master's final project came a proposal that she presented to the Viena publishing house, thus Petits Plaers was born, a collection of novellas, short books of high literary quality. One of the most special summer nights of her life was, precisely, sharing the reading of one of the collection's most emblematic books –Bon dia, tristesa (Good morning, sadness), by Françóise Sagan– aboard a boat in L'Escala. 

“The Vitel·la bookstore in L'Escala organizes lovely book clubs because they are held on a boat at sunset, sailing through beautiful coves. I chose Bon dia, tristesa, because it is a summery book with many moral dilemmas that leads to interesting conversations. Furthermore, it was a totally immersive experience, as we were doing the same as the characters: sailing the Mediterranean while drinking cava,” explains Pujals, who still remembers “the smell of the open sea,” so different from “the smell of sunscreen at the beach.” “The smell of the open sea is purer, more intense. I also really remember the light: we boarded the boat while it was still daylight and little by little dusk was falling. The sky changed color but so did the sea; the sky went from intense blues to warm oranges, and the sea turned silvery. At times it looked like an impressionist painting, and it was a bit harder to focus on the book. There was a moment when we were all golden: I call it the hour of the handsome.”

After the book club, the editor went to dinner with her husband and they ended up eating “delicious anchovies” at a restaurant in the village. “It was one of those Mediterranean evenings of having special conversations, of enjoying the cool evening and the beginning of summer, at that moment when you've just started to get a tan and you feel good-looking and everyone seems friendlier.”

Pujals has always known how to enjoy the summer. Of his teenage summers, he remembers the excursions with the youth group along the coastal path of Alt Empordà, "between secret coves where almost no one reached." "You would walk all day and then take a swim. I ate the best peach of my life in a cove in Cadaqués after a full day's hike. It was very special to sleep in tents under the stars or to camp," says the editor, who argues that summer nights are magical and different precisely "because we are more predisposed for them to be special nights."