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Mrs. Aurora , the typical yaya in her blue robe, looks out on her little balcony full of plants. It is the time of day, just before noon, when the sun hits your home, in a narrow alley from which you can see a piece of the Palau de la Música. But today there is something different: after almost two months closed, the bookstores could reopen. Like the one below his house: On The Road, as small as the street, with its bohemian and beatnik air . Mrs. Aurora greets the four people with a mask just under her balcony.

Although many bookstores have preferred to wait until May 11, the young bookseller Ángel Tijerete dispatches directly to the street: he has placed a counter at the door and a table with 'The books to read before dying'. "People are asking for very literary books. They just called to ask for a Bolaño : The wild detectives . They will come to look for him in the afternoon, after 8:00 pm. People from other neighborhoods do not know if he can come 'outside their hours for a walk '. There is still a lot of confusion, "explains Ángel.

On The Road has been able to resist the impasse of the quarantine thanks to its virtual activity and the requests it sent with a team of bicycle messengers . "80% of books I have sold have been by 'The bookseller recommends': you send me a list with your latest readings and the state of humor you are in and I ask you for 18 or 21 euros, whatever, and I send you a book you don't know what it is, "he explains. And there have been no complaints.

Do not touch, the bookseller reads it to you

In another neighborhood, Sant Antoni, La Calders has also raised the blind. Isabel Sucunza and Luigi Fugarolli are outside, smoking a cigarette, while their dog runs around the pedestrian passage. "Are you open! Or do you have to make an appointment?" Exclaims a girl, coffee to go. Isabel recites the rules: two meters away , only one person can enter per bookcase and books cannot be touched, she and Luigi (with gloves) will show them to them and read the back cover.

"Wow! Can we go in?" exclaims the girl again, Chesca, who goes with Marc (he carries the loaf of bread). "It's super exciting! Seeing what's inside a bookstore ..." "Same thing," concedes the bookseller with a smile. But no. Is not the same. It doesn't look the same after 50 days going only to supermarkets.

At La Calders, a true icon of Sant Antoni, they plan to extend their hours until 23 hours. "It is just an idea ... We also want to ask the City Council for a permit to take advantage of public space: to make book clubs or outdoor presentations this summer. It would be more hygienic and safe. Bureaucracy is terrible, they just let us do things on the street in Sant Jordi and on Music Day, but given these extraordinary circumstances ... ", launches Luigi. And Isabel supports him: "It is the concept of bookstores in the squares . And more this summer, that many people will stay in the city."

In search of Proust

"I come for an order: Les pensées de Pascal and La Ciutat Interrompuda by Julià Guillamon, " says Xavier , a twenty-some-year-old former student of a bilingual school. In the Jaimes they already know him, he buys often. "During confinement many have returned to philosophy and have even launched into reading Proust's À la recherche du temps perdu , " says Montse Porta. His grandfather founded the historic Jaimes, specialized in books in French, in 1941.

Here they have also put a table-barrier in the entrance -with a bottle of Sanytol next to the disinfectant gel- and they bring the books they want to browse through to the clients. A woman with a child and a cart stands up and asks in French if they have CP books (equivalent to Primary). They take out creative activity books with lots of pictures. "We have almost exhausted the stock of books for children from 2 to 5 years old. From 6 years old they are entertaining themselves, but what they asked us most were books for the little ones. I have even made video calls to show them to parents, explains Montse .

La Jaimes is one of those neighborhood bookstores with a loyal audience (and not just French). "Do you want something?" Montse asks one of the customers on the phone. "No, I just want to come."

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