Streets full of books are not just a friendly and picturesque postcard of a country. They are a collective identity element. In Andorra, the day has ceased to be a simple tribute to reading to become an exercise in recognition: who we are, what we tell and which stories we decide to put at the center. This year, at the stops, the country looked in the mirror without intermediaries. It is, more and more, a photo of the country we are and what we tell each other. At the stalls, the search was not so much for the international name, the best-seller of the turn, but for one’s own, that of an acquaintance or friend, which over the years has been increasing the number of Andorran readers. This year the reader has bought himself. It is no coincidence that the best-selling books, the literary kings, have been Coca masegada, by Maria Cucurull, the work of former ministers Joan Martínez Benazet and Eric Jover or L’estafador que ser rei d’Andorra, by Jorge Cebrián. Another regular that has sold a lot is La meva Andorra, by Alfred Llahí, or the unusual Andorra, by Jordi Casamajor. This Sant Jordi has also confirmed the density of the Andorran catalog with the novelties of Nil Forcada, the award-winning Tolls, Àlex Terés with the Andorran Blaugrana memoirs, Joan Carles Sasplugas with his life columns, Albert Roig praising the tradition or the poetry of Antoni Caus. These titles coexist with other recent ones that further expand the offer of the land. When a country fills its streets with books that speak in the first person, it is no longer seeking legitimation: it is being written. And a country that is written enhances culture.
