Yesterday, Catalonia once again experienced a massive Sant Jordi, “with an increase in sales” that, pending confirmation in a few days, would mean having broken its absolute record. The weather respected it, beyond four drops at noon, and there were many who went out to the streets early in the morning to experience a day "that seems to have not been celebrated for years, due to the number of people who have come to visit the authors. I remember it more intensely than other years,” said Javier Castillo, the best-selling author of fiction in Spanish for his book La grieta del Silencio (Suma).
The writer learned the good news from La Vanguardia, because when the Cambra del Llibre published the trend list of the best-selling books, the man from Malaga was still at his stand, with a long line of readers waiting to meet him. “In theory, it ended at 9 p.m., but I know that I will stay until midnight, like last year. I don't want anyone to be left without his signature. I've already used up seven pens and I have three left. But not even the lack of ink, if that happens, will stop me.” Castillo was accompanied for a good part of the day by editors from the United Kingdom, “so that they can see first-hand what we call the Castillo phenomenon, which not only persists over time, but grows and finds no end,” says its editor, Gonzalo Albert, who remembers that the author “was the first Spanish writer to star on a screen in Times Square.”
Ramon Gener was also in the process of signing when he learned that he was at the top of the Cambra's Catalan fiction list with his Història d'un piano (Columna): “I didn't expect anything, I just wanted to write a story with taste and love and it has “It has been wonderful to be able to share it with readers on a day like today.” “I have tried to give each reader who has come time so that they can explain their story to me and make a special dedication to them,” he explained, and thus he has discovered that “it turns out that half of Catalonia plays the piano, and if not, they told me anecdotes.” with other instruments or from music.” But Gener has not needed to have literary success to insist on fictional narrative: “I have been writing about myself for days.” Now you can find the time.
Although everything indicates that there will be few changes, we will have to wait until next April 29 to know with complete certainty which have been the best-selling books of Sant Jordi, if they are these or perhaps the one by Eduardo Mendoza (Three enigmas for the Organization, Seix Barral ) or the posthumous work of Gabriel García Márquez (See you in August, Random House), in Spanish, or the titles of Xavi Coral (Learn to avoid the bales, La Campana) or Eva Baltasar (Ocàs i fascinació, Club Editor), although the latest novel by Joël Dicker (A Wild Animal, Alfaguara/La Campana) or the first installment of Michael McDowell's Blackwater (La Riada, Blackie Books) also appear among the trends in both languages.
A few days ago, the president of the Gremi de Llibreters, Èric del Arco, already announced that this year the list would not be final and would point out the trend that has been seen in recent days, but not the definitive data. Yesterday, without going into details, the sentiment of some editors on the street pointed to an increase in sales taking into account the previous days, precisely because being a weekday – for the first time since before the pandemic – some readers advanced their purchases. Some editor ventured, without figures in hand, to speak of 7%, and another even of 20% in general terms.
This has been one of the most participatory Sant Jordis in Barcelona in memory and with the largest number of booths, from 186 in 2017 to 435 this year: 3,356 meters of registered street bookstores. It has also been the first year that bookstores and publishers have paid to have booths in the “professional areas” of Barcelona, a co-payment measure that Del Arco assured at the time “has come to stay.”
Yesterday, whether in professional areas or not, readers filled the streets. Perhaps early in the morning the influx was not as high as in other years when it fell on a holiday, but in the afternoon, and especially as people left work, it became very difficult to walk even through some passing streets. The power of the book never loses.
