An essential series and one of the best books of 2023: what you can't miss this week

The week ahead, with Jordi Garrigós

Some of the things we hope not to miss in the next seven days

I will start the pain caused by Zoo's separation by listening to Malifeta, the project of the guitarist of the Valencians, Arnau Giménez, and Mireia Matoses (from Pupil·les). After a time publishing songs created during the pandemic, in which they both lived together and composed, their first album has just been released, Mitologia, a compilation of songs they have been making for the last three years and which are now seeing the light. Ideal for missing Panxo's band and company less, because here there is also rap and love for the beats.

I will recover Germanet, published by Blackie Books, the editorial success of Ibrahima Balde, now that Solito is making great stories of migration and displacement fashionable again. Balde's is a very tough first-person odyssey about the search for a lost brother with a narrative that, if you weren't told it was real, you would think it was fiction. One of the most impactful books I have read in recent years.

I will remember one of the greatest series of my life. I am, obviously, talking about The Sopranos, the masterpiece by David Chase, which humanized the New Jersey mafia to limits never seen before. We are not going to make a list of virtues of the entire crew of the Bada Bing, because we would run out of space in the world, so we will limit ourselves to making a recommendation: if you haven't seen it, start it today. Available on HBO.

The week that ends, with Thaïs Gutiérrez

Notes on what we have seen, felt, tasted, and, ultimately, experienced in the last seven days

I have returned to listen to one of my favorite podcasts, which I had forgotten about for months. El Deforme Semanal (Ideal Total) maintains its good form at the hands of the unflagging Lucía Litjmaer and Isa Calderón, who in this chapter talk to us about elegance and all the issues derived from this term, reviewing some great icons like Isabella Blow. 

I have been giftedThe Great Serpent, by Pierre Lemaitre, which has the distinction of being the first crime novel written by the famous French writer, but which remained hidden in a drawer for decades. With an original plot – a 60-year-old woman who is actually a contract killer – it hooks the reader from the first page. A gift for fans of the French author. 

I have celebrated the arrival in Catalan bookstores of Solito, the memoir by Javier Zamora published by Periscopi. It is the true story of the author, a young man from El Salvador who recounts the journey he made alone and on foot from his country to the United States at just 9 years old. An odyssey full of fear and pain that represents the journey of so many people who embark on this trek every year and which was considered one of the best books of 2023 by The New York Times.

I haven't been able to stop thinking about the interview that Pablo Motos gave Sofía Vergara this week on El Hormiguero, a show I try not to watch because the presenter's sexism infuriates me. In this case, however, I made an exception to see how the Colombian actress eats presenter Motos alive and turns all the questions around to end up ridiculing him. If you haven't seen it, it's worth watching.

More proposals for plans and activities

• What can you do this weekend
• Activities for children
• Series premiering this month
• What can you do in the Girona regions
• New restaurants to discover
• The human tower agenda