A selection of ten Catalan fiction books were the most outstanding during 2022. It was a year characterized by diversity and abundance of talent in Catalan literature.
And although there were distribution problems in bookstores last year, during the year we were able to make our literary debuts in novels.
Top ten Catalan fiction books in 2022
1. Guilleries (Males Herbes) Author: Ferran Garcia
It is a kind of bandit western, but where beauty and violence are masterfully combined. It happens in the 19th century during the last Carlist war.
2. L’atzar i les ombres (Comanegra) Author: Julià de Jòdar
It is a trilogy that reconstructs the history of the peripheral working class in the context of the first decades of Franco’s regime. It all takes place in a Badalona neighborhood of Civil War losers.
3. Ràbia (Proa), Author: Sebastià Alzamora
It tells the story of a failed writer and his dog, Taylor, in a Mallorcan village destroyed by tourism. Alzamora narrates an episode he lived through and from it, he reflects and portrays the feeling of rage.
4. Nicolau (La segona perifèria), Author: Antoni Veciana
Nicolau is a seafaring narration, popular rondalla style. It tells the story of the boy who is transformed into a fish after a maternal curse through popular expressions and with the use of rich Catalan.
5. Tots els mecanismes (Proa), Author: Melcior Comes
It tells the story of a case of family corruption between Barcelona and Mallorca. It is a narrative of how the circles of power work, of how the truth is obsessively sought.
6. Mamut (Club Editor), Author: Eva Baltasar
Closing of a trilogy that narrates a desertion. The protagonist is a pregnant woman who leaves the “dirt” of the city in search of a rural life. It is a raw and stark novel.
7. Les altures (Empúries), Author: Sebastià Portell
It tells the story of the noucentista artist (painter and sculptor) Ismael Smith, through which he reflects on the interest of failure and the construction and/or destruction of artistic careers.
8. Benvolguda (Column), Author: Empar Moliner
It speaks of the crisis of age, of facing the reality of the passing of time, while the protagonist’s husband falls in love with a younger girl. Moliner’s acid sense of humor stands out. The novel received the Premi Ramon Llull 2022.
9. 1969 (L’Altra), Author: Eduard Márquez
It is a compilation of police reports, letters and newspaper articles that recount the events in the year that Franco’s regime began to crack. 1969 is a lively and ambitious book that reconstructs this era.
10. Els irredempts (LaBreu), Author: Cristina Garcia Molina
A cutting prose that tells three stories of collective struggle against family, societal and even self oppression.
