The passing of Luis Goytisolo (1935-2026) decisively closes a golden age of contemporary Spanish novel. Here we speak of a solid and profound narrative, full of expressive and intellectual boldness. Born into a well-off family, Luis and his other siblings had to overcome the foundational trauma of their mother’s death, which occurred during a bombing in the Civil War. Perhaps that was the driving force behind his later dedication to writing, where Luis stood out early with ‘Las afueras’ (1958), a book of stories that announced much of his world: postwar Barcelona, seen partly from the bourgeois elites.

The workers of the Consorci de Biblioteques de Barcelona have started an indefinite strike this Tuesday to protest the lack of progress in the negotiation process with the City Council regarding their working conditions, and 37 of the 40 centers in the city have not opened; only the libraries of Collserola-Josep Miracle, Canyelles-M. Àngels Rivas, and Joan Miró have remained operational.