Yes there is no respite, and even less so when the Diada is so close. On Monday, Luz de Gas opened its doors wide to present the book El gran Peret (Larousse, in a double Spanish and Catalan edition). The mig amic's son has had a luxury biographer, Rogeli Herrero, one of the souls of Los Manolos.
Albert Om acted as interviewer and we ended up learning that, at the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games, where Peret and Los Manolos sang together for the first time, at no time did they perform Friends Forever. Those in charge of doing it were Josep Carreras and Sarah Brightman, but memory is very treacherous.
“England has the Beatles, the US has Elvis and we have Peret,” says Herrero, who, in the words of Om, has written “a love letter” to the king of rumba. “Peret was a great salesman, like his father, and a great seducer, and we were lucky that he fell on the side of music and not commerce,” explains the author. I have done the book with respect and admiration for him.”
Regarding photographs, the family provided him with the complete family album. “I went to look for them on a bike with a large backpack, and they gave me a trunk full of photos. I had to go home by taxi,” she recalls. The rumbero coven ended with five Peret songs performed by Rogeli Herrero and a combo where the author's pianist son stood out with his own light, who has the same name as him and also his grandfather, who was a colleague in the La Vanguardia workshop. .
On Tuesday, another forever friend and also a companion of the newspaper presents work at the Merricat bookstore. But the group of friends and admirers is so large that some are left on the street. The book is presented by Albert Molins, journalist and gourmet gourmet, who has written Comer sin asking permission (Rosamerón), an essay about good eating where he dismantles myths and skins them with a sharp knife. He presents the book Miquel Bonet, who confesses: “I owe many things to Albert from an intellectual and personal point of view,” and defines the volume as “a book about gastronomic culture.”
Bonet highlights the large number of sources that the author cites in the book. “I am a journalist,” says Molins, “and journalists work with sources. But the presenter also points out that there is a chapter on sex and food, which is his favorite, where there are no sources... Molins responds that "if there are chapters on death and sex it is because food is absolutely linked to life" . And he issues a warning: “There are those who take refuge in alcohol or drugs, and we do so in food. However, food can be a refuge value to hide emotional disorders.”
During question time, in the front row Arnau, who is 10 years old and is the author's nephew, asks what sex has to do with food and asking for permission. Great question that his uncle promises he will answer in a few years.
On Wednesday, in Ona, while Jordi Cabré presents the testimonial book that he has written about the former Minister of the Generalitat and mayor of Barcelona Xavier Trias, the Californian writer Kerri Maher, author of the best-seller The Bookstore, concluded in another part of the bookstore. from Paris, talks about the novel On the other side of the line (Navona, in a double Spanish and Catalan edition).
With the biblioinstagramer Mixa, those present learn some of the details of the Chicago Jane Collective, which is the historical basis of Maher's novel. “Jane was the code name for asking for help to perform abortions illegally but safely,” says Maher, who highlights that the network worked especially for black women, with fewer resources, who were helped to travel to New York state. , where abortion was legal. With donations and sorority, some 11,000 abortions were performed, an approximate figure because, due to the illegal nature of the group, there are no records.
And there are only three days left until Sant Jordi.
Catalan version, here
