The “History of a Piano, 31,887” books are sold out at the Fira booths to get Ramón Gener’s signature

Ramón Gener confirms in the Fira del Llibre the success achieved in Sant Jordi, where he was the best-selling author. Thousands of people have taken advantage of the May Day holiday to come to the Fair and many of them have taken the opportunity to try to obtain the signature of the Catalan writer and musician, to the point of exhausting the stock of copies not only prepared for the signing, but also in the booths. This musicologist and popularizer has dazzled with his “History of a Piano, 31,887”, his first novel, with which he travels through 20th century Europe through the secret hidden in a musical instrument that he bought in a store in the Gràcia neighborhood and that has been worthy of the Ramón Llull Prize.

“I’m amazed at the amount of people there are,” said Gener, Shortly after arriving, “you couldn’t even get in because of the amount of people there were in the central passageway and I had to make a detour. “I stopped to listen to a very interesting presentation… there are so many people, leafing through books, walking… I had to go behind the booths!” Gener has also valued the Fira space very positively and has been “very grateful” for the success in Sant Jordi, also looking forward to being able to share with his followers at the Fira del Llibre de València.

The presence of numerous families with children has been noted in the children’s activities and in the massive signings and presentations, not only by Ramón Gener, but also by Emma Zafón, Mª Fernanda Ampuero, and is expected this afternoon for Rosario Raro and Valeria Correa, among others.

They have also attended numerous readers to the presentation and signature of María Fernanda Ampuero, Ecuadorian writer with a long literary career both in her native Ecuador and in Spain, where she moved when she was 28 years old. “It’s beautiful!” Ampuero celebrated, after explaining that it was his first time at the Fira del Llibre de València, “I didn’t imagine it would be so beautiful and that it also coincided with a day off for everyone.” Her works have been translated into English, Portuguese and Italian and in 2012 she was considered one of the most influential Latin personalities in Spain. At the Fira del Llibre she presented and signed “Visceral”, a novel that starts from COVID to create a kind of manifesto crossed by current events that travels through fears and obsessions.

It has been the first time at the Fira also by Emma Zafón. Zafón achieved great notoriety in 2016 when he published with Chimo Bayo “I wasn’t going to go out and I got involved.” However, with “Casadas y Calladas”, a novel that she presents and signs at the Fira del Llibre de València, the writer and journalist reveals herself as an author of sensitivity and talent who, with a simple and linear construction, is capable of bringing to life to a complex family constellation with a woman at its center.

Zafón travels with “Casadas y Calladas” to the 70s, a time when the majority of women lived in the shadow of their husbands, trapped in a prison marriage. Through the eyes of the protagonist, an unfortunately very current story is retrospectively revealed: that of sexist violence. “It has been wonderful, they have presented me very well,” said Zafón, “very happy, a lot of people and very well, highly recommended.”

Throughout the day the presence of families, boys and girls, has been felt, filling both Dani Miquel’s great performance, with his show for all ages “La Maria no Té Por”, as well as the storytellers and the presentations of children’s books “Quisicoses per a éssers curious” or “Minerva and the Torres del Mar.”