If we define it as spectacular, enigmatic, special and unique, probably everyone who has had the opportunity to visit it would agree that Barcelona is like that. No one can be surprised that it has been a source of inspiration for artists and writers, and many authors have even decided to make Barcelona the setting for their works.
Today we want to propose a trip through our city without having to move from your seat, since the means of transport will be the letters of some of the many writers who have put Barcelona between the pages of their books. We have selected 10 books with history in Barcelona. Take a good note:
The Cathedral of the Sea (Ildefonso Falconés)
La Catedral del Mar is the first literary work published by the Catalan lawyer Ildefonso Falconés, which was released in 2006.
It is a novel that takes us back to the 14th century to tell us the story of Arnau Estanyol, a peasant who wants to escape from his origins. On his escape he arrives in Barcelona to join the guild of stone workers and begins his adventure in the construction of the city’s greatest monument, the cathedral of Santa Maria del Mar.
Love, suffering, beauty and a complex and well-devised plot allow readers to get hooked on the story from the beginning while discovering details of the architecture and culture of Barcelona at the time.
Homage to Catalonia(George Orwell)
In 1936, George Orwell arrives in Catalonia to fight fascism… And this book entitled Homage to Catalonia is a collection of personal experiences about the author during the Civil War. In it, Orwell documents his observations about the war and how Spanish society suffered from it.
The Shadow of the Wind (Carlos Ruiz Safón)
Daniel Sempere is the protagonist of this story set in post-war Barcelona. Daniel is a young man who one day finds a strange book written by an unknown Catalan author. The book’s protagonist falls in love with the story, which leads him to start an interesting adventure in order to discover other works of the unknown author, including his personal history. The adventure takes Daniel and the readers to many corners of the city in order to discover things about the mysterious author, but curiously, Daniel will also discover things about himself.
This story by Carlos Ruiz Safón has been so successful that there is even a tour in the city that takes tourists to discover the main places where the story takes place, such as the cathedral of Santa Maria del Mar or the beautiful square of Sant Felip Neri.
The South(Colm Tóibín)
This novel tells the story of Katherine Proctor, an Irishwoman who packs her bags and heads for Catalonia in the 1950s. It is precisely in Catalonia where he meets Miguel and later Michael… The story created by Toíbín is set in the city of Barcelona and the Catalan countryside and tells how they seek to flee their past.
The South is the first in a series of successful novels written by Toíbín, an Irish writer who arrived in Barcelona at the age of 20 to teach English.
The Diamond Square (Mercè Rodorera i Gurguí)
This novel, considered one of the greatest Catalan novels of all time, narrates the life of a young girl named Colometa in the city of Barcelona before, during and after the Spanish Civil War.
The work shows the author’s fascinating way of seeing the city in the first half of the 20th century. The great Gabo (Gabriel García Márquez) described this novel as “the most beautiful that has been published in Spain after the civil war”.
