Espionage and Jo Nesbø, protagonists of BCNegra

At 10 Abaixadors Street, there is a theater and it was logical to think that this was the place where they had summoned the press for the presentation of the 19th edition of the BCNegra festival, which takes place between February 5 and 11. But the hour passed and the door was still closed. Turns out the date wasn't exactly there, but in the tiny grocery store right next door. A door at the back leads to a room of mirrors that leads to Monk, a cocktail bar that aims to offer today's customers the feeling of clandestinity of the establishments of decades ago. It is not the most comfortable place for a press conference, but the festival's motto of the year, “Spies like us,” explains why the nighttime of this venue was a good setting to launch it and, incidentally, announce the award. Pepe Carvalho.

As soon as it arrived, the announcement: the XIX Pepe Carvalho Prize has been awarded to the Norwegian writer Jo Nesbø, author of police thrillers, many of them bestsellers. “In a book by Nesbø we always have careful documentation that refers us more to a curious spirit than to a writer (…) a look at his society that does not spare criticism of the still open wounds of a past that “Not everyone wants to accept,” says the jury, made up of Carlos Zanón, Olga Merino, Lilian Neuman, Xita Rubert and Daniel Vázquez Sallés.

The jury has also pointed out that the award seeks to celebrate Nordic literature, which after the Nobel Prize seems to be in luck. The award ceremony will take place on February 8 at the Saló de Cent of Barcelona City Council, and on Friday, February 9, a conversation will take place between the winner and Xavier Bundó at the Mooby Bosque. The film will then be shown The Snowman (2017) based on his book. Together with Mooby Bosque, La Paloma and the Jaume Fuster Library will be the main venues for the festival.

“We are giving in in aspects that a few years ago we would not have even imagined,” said Carlos Zanón in the presentation. State secrets are spied on, but also people's tastes, purchases and concerns on the Internet, so the figure of the spy, common in crime novels, returns with renewed air.

A total of 153 writers from around the world will come to Barcelona to talk about the loss of privacy from different perspectives. Among the most notable are Chris Offutt, American author of short stories, novels, memoirs, and nonfiction; Elaine Vilar, one of the most important young voices in Cuba, or the Italian Sandrone Dazieri, also a screenwriter. Other foreign names: Alajn Parks, Kike Ferrari or Joe Thomas. Among the writers in Catalan and Spanish, the festival will feature names such as Alicia Giménez Bartlett, Eduardo Mendoza, Marc Pastor, Empar Fernández, Andreu Martín. The journalist Carles Porta will also be present, in conversation with Zanón, and the politician Roger Torrent to comment on the Pegasus case together with Gemma Saura and Miquel Àngel García Alvira.

The three protagonists

Every year, the festival chooses a book, an author and a character that will star in the festival, and dedicate activities to it. The book will be The spy who came back from the cold (1963) by John Le Carré, considered one of the best spy novels set in the Cold War. Around the book there will be a round table and a screening of the film adaptation by Martin Ritt at the Filmoteca de Catalunya, in a session presented by Tuli Márquez. The main author is the Japanese writer and journalist Seicho Matsumoto. He was best known from his second book, Kokura Diary Story (1952). Finally, this year's character is Lònia Guiu, created by Maria Antònia Oliver and the first female and feminist detective in contemporary crime novels in Catalan. Mallorcan settled in Barcelona, ​​she is the protagonist of three novels, she istudi in lilac (1985), Antypods (1988) and The sun that fa l'ànec (1994).

The BCNegra is a literary festival open to other disciplines and also includes an exhibition in its programming. The sample The black game It can be visited in the Jaume Fuster Library and is curated by Joaquim Noguero, with the collaboration of Oriol Comas y Coma who has donated his collection. It is dedicated to the game as a story and literature as a game. Likewise, the festival programs music, theater, workshops and routes with the aim of the black genre filling the city.

All the culture that goes with you awaits you here.

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