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Petros Márkaris, Alicia Giménez Bartlett, Rosa Ribas, Carles Porta, Carlos Zanón, Lorenzo Silva, Noemí Trujillo and Virginia Feito meet by chance in one of the areas of the ‘superilla’ of Passeig de Gràcia
Before the storm fell, when the sun was still shining and a human tsunami ran through Passeig de Gràcia as if the pandemic had never existed -and the entire invention of the ‘superilla’ of Sant Jordi-, in a few meters, to the Diputació height, had concentrated, by incredible chance, a whole ‘noir’ ballpoint pen at the ready. There was the veteran Petros Markarisat 85 years old, non-stop signing ‘Cuarentena’, new stories of his Sheriff Jaritos. However, the Greek writer did not expect what a woman who approached him told him and before whom her affable smile froze. She was Teresa, arrived from Mallorca. She asked him to dedicate a copy to his partner, Carme, who had died of covid and was a great admirer of his. Much affection poured into her signature, which she left him speechless before the wind broke loose and, after the first of the four storms, the squire from her publishing house urgently bought him a scarf. It was not a question of playing with health.
side by side was Rosa Ribas, with her ‘Far’, dark novel, not black, although the Barcelonan is already writing a new installment of her detective Hernández family. In the signature she writes: “In the most inhospitable places the best stories can come out.” On this occasion, another story seeker, like her, has asked for it. Luis Llort, journalist and fellow writer of the black genre who last year won the 1st Paco Camarasa award.
Nesbo the climber
It is a Sant Jordi (of rain) and reunions without a mask. And for some writer, read Jo Nesboalso climbing, we assume that in the end ‘indoor’, because the Norwegian was going to dedicate the morning to that favorite hobby before joining the signing sessions in the afternoon with his brand new ‘The Jealous Man’.
At the same table as Márkaris and Ribas is the tandem Lorenzo Silva and Noemi Trujilloshe debuting and “happy”, and he, struggled, before their second case together, ‘The forging of a rebel‘. “I’ve been enjoying Sant Jordi for 25 years, I came for the first time in 1997, but this one has a special value because with Noemí it’s like a debut”, comments the creator of Bevilacqua and Chamorro before thanking a reader to accompany them with their new characters. silva, too Getafe Black Commissionerdoes not remove the handcuffs, as he does not, at his side, another commissioner, the one from BCNegra, Carlos Zanónwho does wield an elegant pen, black, of course, to sign his ‘love-song’ -with a register far from the police-: “A novel that I wanted to sound like a noisy and sincere song”, he writes to a reader.
To the right of Zanon, Greek words such as ‘efkharîsto’ and ‘parakaló’ are heard. And it is that 20% of those in the queue of Márkaris speak or understand some of his language, such as Ana Mar, who claims to have the entire Jaritos collection and has gone to look for a signature whenever the writer has come to Barcelona.
Carles Porta, at the foot of the canyon
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On the back of Márkaris, outside the booth, he has been standing for two hours without stopping signing and among fans the television king of the local black chronicle, the author of ‘Crims’, Carles Porta. “The thing is Josep Maria Espinas He told me on my first Sant Jordi that we should stand next to the people, that we have to break the distance. And this is priceless. It’s wonderful that people can touch you”. In the rubrics of the author of ‘Tor’ there is an abundance of “May light win over darkness”, alluding to the title of his latest book. Among the fans, those who follow him on his podcasts and on TV3 and now they jump to her books, a young woman doing internships as a social educator in the Quatre Camins prison, or a father of twins who at 50 years old confesses that it is the first time he has had the impulse that an author sign a book for him.
young and consecrated
Crossing the street dazzles the stylish wide-brimmed hat from Virginia Feitobefore his successful psychological suspense debut ‘Mrs March’. Still somewhat intimidated by the long queue that next to her harvests Julia Navarro, warns: “I will always write dark things.” “But with humor,” he adds, smiling. A little higher is the great black lady Alicia Gimenez Bartlett. A resounding ‘no’ comes out when they ask her if she will abandon her Petra Delicado because with ‘The President’ she has presented a new series and new protagonists, “young and Valencian”. “I’m still at the age of creating,” claims the Valencian. “Sant Jordi stressed me out, with so many people… I hadn’t been here for five years, but today I saw that you can overcome it with a hailstorm.”