Island writers also join the non-fiction 'boom'

PalmAmong the thousands of new releases that will arrive in bookstores in the coming months – more than 85,000 books are published each year in Spain, the vast majority in print, according to data from the Federation of Publishers' Guilds – there are numerous by Balearic authors. And a very important part of those that will be published before the end of the year will be found in the non-fiction section. This is the case of the new book by writer Lucia Pietrelli, with the provisional title Vestiges. Labyrinth with a father with flames. It will be after the summer that Adia Edicions will publish this literary essay where, from the personal experience of her father's death, Pietrelli explores, investigates, and fabricates on the theme of death through mythology.

Also arriving soon in the non-fiction section, in a matter of weeks, will be Four Islands, a Community. 40 years in debate, by Miquel Vidal Bosch (Nova Editorial Moll), and after the summer it will be the turn of two more timely new releases within the framework of the Blai Bonet Year: the portrait signed by Carles Rebassa, Myth and Dust of Blai Bonet, and Blai Bonet and Pier Paolo Passolini: Images of the Transcendent, an expansion of the text that Sebastià Alzamora and Magdalena Brotons published in the academic journal Oceanide and which Adia will also publish.

Lleonard Muntaner publishing house will also have important new releases by Balearic authors in the non-fiction field in the coming months, such as Miquel López Gual's essay on the role of women during the Civil War and the postwar period in Menorca, still without a definitive title, which will be published next October. Shortly before, in September, Mallorca Romaní. A History of the Gypsy Community, a project with which Laura Jurado received the Ciutat de Palma Research Award 2021, and Enduring Paradise. Conversations with Twenty Mallorcan Artists, the Catalan version of the book in which Marga Melià collected a series of interviews with prominent figures in the world of culture, from Miquel Barceló to Joan Miquel Oliver, including the now deceased Agustí Villaronga and Cristòfol Serra. The latter will also be accompanied by the premiere of the documentary where the audiovisual versions of these conversations are collected.

And also in a matter of months –although the publication might be delayed until early next year, as the author warns– the monumental essay Under the Siege of the Horse. Secret History of the Heroine in Mallorca, by Tomeu Canyelles, will arrive, by Illa Edicions.