The rankings of the best-selling books for Sant Jordi move: in the list provided that day by the Book Chamber, which accounted for the information collected during the day and the previous days by the bookstores of the Booksellers Guild of Catalonia and the information collected by LibriRed, a large part of the day's sales, and especially the book stalls, was missing, up to 40%, according to industry sources. The Book Chamber, in fact, plans to offer a more accurate balance sheet this week. Several editors and authors consulted by this newspaper criticize the bad image given by proclaiming a Sant Jordi winner and having to replace him with another a few days later.
Indeed, according to the data La Vanguardia has had access to, in Catalan the best-selling book during Sant Jordi week was Xavier Bosch's novel March 32 (Univers), while Gemma's Sant Jordi award Ruiz Palà, Les nostres mares (Proa) would move to second position. From here, the indicators differ depending on whether it is LibriRed or the GfK consultancy - with estimates that according to some publishers are more reliable, because they cover more points of sale. According to LibriRed, they would be followed by Pregària a Prosérpina (La Campana) by Albert Sánchez Piñol, and two international titles that were already in the provisional results, The portrait of marriage (The Other), by Maggie O'Farrell and Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and Tomorrow (Periscope) by Gabrielle Zevin. The breakthrough novel by Regina Rodríguez Sirvent, Les calces al sol (La Campana), which had been the 4th best seller in Catalan, would fall here to 8th place, but not according to GfK data, in which it would maintain its position, but the 3rd and 5th places would be, respectively, for Paris were us (Columna), the Ramon Llull prize by Andreu Claret, and The possibility of calling it home (Proa), by Marta Orriols. In Spanish, the information obtained by this newspaper did not reflect changes.
There are also changes in non-fiction, since if on St. George's Day it was taken for granted that the best seller was La Sotana's Gran encyclopédia del Barça (Blackie Books), now it has become De la sabana a Mart (Rosa dels Vents) by Xavier Sala and Martín, with the new release by Carles Porta, Crimes: capital sins (La Campana) maintaining second place.
Regarding these data, Xavier Bosch recalled that "whatever the lists say, the books sold that day are the same, and I feel confident and honored by the trust the readers have placed in me". "When you are the best seller of Sant Jordi, they don't give you a glass or a check for a million euros, although there is a certain satisfaction. I had been the best seller of Sant Jordi in other years and this one, the truth is that the feeling I had was that it was the best I had ever experienced, regardless of whether any other book sold more or less than mine", he said yesterday in statements to La Vanguardia. "What I have to do is good stories, because I don't write to compete but in favor of the reader, and above all I have no desire to generate controversy, least of all with Gemma Ruiz, who has all my admiration", he concluded.
The editor of Gemma Ruiz, Josep Lluch, understands that the changes are due to the different times at which the data are sent, which are, after all, estimates. "We celebrated being Sant Jordi's best sellers, and if we now have to congratulate Xavier Bosch, we will do so, sportingly, because it is not a competition and we are very happy because it had been years since the Sant Jordi award had been so powerful", he assured.
Ruiz, for his part, referred to what he already said a week ago, when he remembered that the list barely represents 5% of the best-selling books.
In any case, what is clear from the data of both meters, as far as the narrative in Catalan is concerned, is the great difference between the two best-selling books and the rest, which more than double in sales.
