Writers and Barcelona
Barcelona has been and keeps being a perfect scene for literary works, a source of inspiration for writers who were born here and a welcoming place for writers from around the world who have described it in their books.
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Antoni VIVES
(Barcelona, 1965)
Politician and writer, he graduated in Business Science and specialized in marketing and international trade. Between 2007 and 2015, he was a councillor for Town Planning at Barcelona City Council. He is the author of essays such as Catalunya, entre la perplexitat i el somni (2002), Barcelonies: lletra de batalla per Barcelona (2006) and Per què faig de polític? Carta oberta als meus fills (2007), and narrative works such as The Dream of Farringdon Road (2010), Les banderes de l'1 d'abril (2012), I demà, el paradís (2014), which won him the Llibreter Prize, and Passió, mort i resurrecció de Manel Garcia (2016), set in Barcelona.
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Carlos Ruiz ZAFÓN
(Barcelona, 1964)
The outstanding success of his novel “Shadow of the Wind” (2002) set in Barcelona in 1945, makes him the most international Barcelona-born author. Translated into 36 languages, it won 13 international awards. The adventures continued with The Angel’s Game (2008), a portrayal of Barcelona’s turbulent twenties, followed by The Prisoner of Heaven (2011), and finally completing the tetralogy.The Labyrinth of Spirits (2016). All four books have taken readers on literary journeys to the real places which inspired them: Carrer de l’Arc del Teatre, the street on which leads to the basement to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, the Villa Helius on Carrer de l’Abadessa Olzet, and the Palauet Aldaya on Avinguda Tibidabo.
Pedro ZARRALUKI
(Barcelona, 1954)
Writer. His Borges narrative seeks logic and precision in language. In his novel Hotel Astoria (1997), his clever use of ellipsis takes us back to Franco Barcelona from the fifties.
Ángel ZÚÑIGA
(Navarra, 1911 - el Prat de Llobregat, 1994)
A journalist for “Destino” and “El Noticiero Universal”. During his years as correspondent for La Vanguardia in New York, he wrote about the Hollywood star system, and portrays the more frivolous and chic side of Barcelona in Barcelona y la noche (1949).