Amélie Nothomb and Han Kang: a Sant Jordi between champagne and roses | News from Catalonia | EUROtoday

Between champagne and roses. This is how two of essentially the most anticipated worldwide manufacturers of the day spent Sant Jordi. On the one hand, the restrained Han Kang, who has solely signed 100 copies—Korean fashion, very quick and environment friendly, with out dedication or photograph—, in a single mid-morning shift within the backyard of the La Central del Raval bookstore. On the opposite hand, the incombustible Amélie Nothomb, who spent the day accompanied by a glass and a bottle in a champagne bottle full of ice throughout the 4 hours she devoted to signing.

Kang, the 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature, one of many youngest to obtain it (she is 55 years previous), selected to not overdo it and was very selective. After her mass tub on the Center de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (CCCB) upon her arrival on Tuesday, the place she gathered round 700 folks in a chat on empathy with the author Mar García Puig, the Korean concentrated her presence on a single level and was delighted that the Sant Jordi competition mixed books and roses, since she is a gardening lover. ink and bloodwhich is now revealed in Spanish and Catalan, got here out in its unique language between The vegetarian (2007) y Greek class (2011). About 80,000 copies of the primary have already been bought in Spain, making it a best-seller. It was noticeable. She started signing at 11:30 a.m., escorted by her editor at Random, Albert Puigdueta, and the 2 interpreters who accompanied her, the sisters Esther and Eun Jin. He dealt with it properly.

Its readers had been cautious and started lining up at eight within the morning to get their spot. A woman had traveled from Ferrol solely to acquire her signature and that of Amélie Nothomb, which introduced Psychopomphis newest novel in Anagrama. The French writer was left with out Sant Jordi final yr attributable to falling off her bike the day earlier than his arrival and this yr she made essentially the most of it. He landed very first thing within the morning, signed for 4 hours, divided into two shifts between morning and afternoon, with out leaving his flirtatious crystal glass and was scheduled to return to France on an early flight on Friday. “We should export this party to the whole world,” he delightedly instructed the press.

The post-pandemic had marked just a few years of a timid worldwide presence in Sant Jordi, however on this event a rebound in worldwide writers has been seen. In addition to the Scottish Ali Smith, who served as a preacher claiming the collective energy of public libraries, the American writer of thrillers JD Barker or the Swiss author Joël Dicker.