After two years, this Friday Sant Jordi come back (in reality, the saint never left) and Book Day returned. Bookstores reopened (with discounts), book signings returned (with the required social distance) and, what the industry wanted most: sales returned.

Novels, essays, poems, stories, and comics have been published as scheduled.  However, many others remained on ice during the months of confinement. Big names, others less known and, as always, titles that have worked better than others. From the bookstores the day is embraced with optimism. In a note, CEGAL, the Booksellers Guild, pointed out this week that 87 million Euros have been sold in this first quarter. Last year around the same dates (half a month of confinement) there were 78 million Euros and the previous year, 85 million Euros. As there is no way to verify this, (the industry databases cannot be accessed), we will leave it at that.

See some recommendations from The Confidential, almost all of them new, here