Books to read during the Week... or beyond

PalmaA dozen book novelties by authors from the Balearic Islands, most of them also from publishing labels of the Islands, make up this selection of titles for the new season. We present them to you just as the editions of the two major annual gatherings dedicated to books in Catalan are about to take place: the Barcelona Week, between the 18th and 27th, which will have an island presence, and the Palma Week, from the 24th to the 27th, in the Misericòrdia gardens. These are some of the books that readers will be able to find at both events, and also in the bookstores of the Islands: dystopian, historical, and intrigue narrative; essays on characters and traditions; poetry with disturbing contents; theater of diverse signs, and a combination of images and science.

The price of being born

Laura Gost

Proa. 194 pages / €19.90

In her fourth novel, the multifaceted Laura Gost presents readers with a disturbing dystopia. In a world that closely resembles the current one, no child can be born unless there is another person willing to die to take their place. It is what is known as 'the relief'. Magda is pregnant and, since she does not have any relative willing to take this step, she must turn to the black market: finding someone desperate enough to accept death in exchange for a large amount of money.

Life is not mathematics

Joan Miquel Oliver

La Magrana. 248 pages / €21.90

Are they seventy-seven... tales? Stories? Aphorisms? Reflections? Memories? Before the reader's eyes opens a range of sensations, thoughts, brief dialogues, which Joan Miquel Oliver, lyricist for Antònia Font, unfolds agilely and accessibly, as if he were discussing it with a friend or a neighbor. From the Alaska hamburger joint to the gastronomic tastes of his cat, unraveling vital experiences with philosophy and humor, Oliver also includes a section where he explains how one of the Majorcan group's albums was cooked up.

Long was the night of that summer day

Jaume Morey Sureda

Documenta Balear. 348 pages / 24 €

Francoist repression in a town in the Part Forana is the essential theme of this novel by the historian and philologist Jaume Morey Sureda, who has drawn from real events and testimonies of the victims and their families. The action is set in the summer of 1936 in an imaginary town: Murguet. It was not a scene of military clashes, but of fear, silence, denunciations, and revenge. Men who had fought for their ideas had to spend years in hiding.

The consequences

Pere Antoni Pons

Proa. 411 pages / €22.90

Journalist, critic, poet, essayist, Pere Antoni Pons provides with this novel further proof of his versatility. He uses his hometown, Campanet, as one of the settings for the story in which the protagonist, between two romantic relationships, follows the trail of a seemingly forgotten event: a visit that two Nazi German SS officers allegedly made to Mallorca some time ago. With agile and convincing language, the author includes the antisemitism that, on the island, was manifested against the Chuetas.

If all the sea were ink

Rosa Planas Ferrer

Lleonard Muntaner. 120 pages / €15

The Doctor of Philology and Philosophy Rosa Planas Ferrer brings forth a new fruit of her work in studying and disseminating the exceptional woman that was Sister Anna Maria of the Most Holy Sacrament (Valldemossa, 1649 - Palma, 1700), who was capable of pouring her intimate religious experience into a literary production of extraordinary quality. The anthology of texts is presented with an introductory study and notes and commentaries that allow one to understand her world and the context of the era.

Compost. Present almost constant

Quela Servera-Turnes

Adia. 80 pages / €14

With her first poetry collection, the Mallorcan Quela Servera-Turnes has won the 2026 Bernat Vidal i Tomàs prize. Adia publishes it in the Ossos de Sol collection, a benchmark for poetry in Catalan. With powerful expressions and evocative images, the poems take a journey through external and internal transformation, exploring aspects that sometimes remain buried, in an alchemical process that transforms sensations and feelings.

The September 12th celebration. The invention of a fact?

Gabriel Ensenyat Pujol

Island. 151 pages / 15 €

A book that deals with a quite timely issue these days: how did a date that was initially insignificant, that September 12, 1276, when James II swore the franchises of the kingdom of Mallorca, officially become the island's National Day? A specialist in the field like Gabriel Ensenyat addresses the historical episode and how it has been used to establish this recently instituted celebration, exploring the trajectory of the kingdom of Mallorca.

Four Ibizan prints

Bernat Joan

Edicions Aïllades. 63 pages / 12 €

The Farsa collection of theatrical texts, from the Ibizan imprint Edicions Aïllades, delivers this book by Bernat Joan i Marí, a key personality of Balearic culture, with more than sixty titles. This volume brings together four plays –Ahmed (To the galleys), Children of someone, Who is the biggest fool and To marry the pig– which reflect the historical trajectory and personality of the Ibizan people, using both rigor and humor. The book cover is by the painter Matilde Hernández.

Singing in the Pla de Mallorca. 50 years of the Sant Joan Choir

Bàrbara Duran Bordoy

The Rooster. 185 pages / 20 €

Singing is not just a hobby. In Sant Joan, over the course of half a century, the practice of choral singing has been a tool for socialization, for building community. For this reason, the chronicle by musicologist Bàrbara Duran Bordoy is not a cold narrative of the trajectory of a group. In these 50 years there are lives: masses, rehearsals, funerals, moments of joy and sadness. A volume that reflects the personality of the Pla de Mallorca, with a specific way of understanding the world.

The second line

Josep R. Cerdà

Barcelona Provincial Council. 66 pages / 5 €

With this text, the Majorcan Josep Ramon Cerdà, a true benchmark of the contemporary island scene, obtained the first edition of the Àngel Guimerà prize for dramatic literature, convened by the Barcelona Provincial Council and the Dramatic Group. It is a disturbing story that begins when three men of precarious existence encounter, in the vicinity of a closed hotel, in winter, an enigmatic woman. The storm forces them to take refuge in the building and their secrets come to light.

Kestrel

Sara Rivera Martorell

Nova Editorial Moll. 128 pages / 18 €

The legendary Balenguera collection, created in 1961 and the dean of poetry series in the Islands, reaches number 194 with the second poetry collection by Sara Rivera Martorell, who already debuted with this same imprint with Sarbatana, in 2021. Kestrel is a literary challenge: it speaks of that which is not easy or pleasant to talk about. Of contradictions, of bodily experiences, of mysteries, of monstrosities, of that which is difficult to express with words and of the consciousness of death, among other contents.

Navy blue

Júlia Mulet

Zahorí. 64 pages / 21 €

Why is the sea blue? This question, which most children will have asked themselves while looking at the waves, forms the backbone of this book that connects three exceptional aspects: how colors disappear due to the effect of sunlight in water and blue is the last one to resist; the awareness of the importance of the marine environment in the sustainability of the planet; and attractive and innovative illustrations. The Mallorcan Júlia Mulet, who knows both the sea and visual art very well, combines science and color here.