5 Unforgettable Books Set in Barcelona to Read before Visiting
Looking for some great novels set in Barcelona to read? Look no further.
I’m a literary travel expert and Read the World advocate. I love searching out great reads set in the places I’m visiting or would like to visit one day, so on a recent trip to Barcelona, I knew I just had to explore some of the books that have been set there.
This list consists of five novels, all of them translated from Spanish or Catalan (after all, Barcelona is the capital of Catalonia). These books really run the gamut of Barcelona history, with the earliest set in Medieval Barcelona, one set in the 19th century, and a few set in the 20th, including before, during, and after the Spanish Civil War.
My experience reading the literature of Barcelona has been fantastic. I’ve discovered some of my favorite books I’ve read in the last few years, and it makes me excited to explore more Spanish and Catalan literature.
Read on for my recommendations, including what kind of readers I think would enjoy each book. Don’t forget to pin this post so you can find it later, and check out my Youtube channel for more bookish content.
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Whenever possible, I recommend buying books at local bookshops or through Bookshop.org, because shopping there puts the profits right into the hands of indie bookstores all over the country.
You can shop this booklist at Bookshop.org here:
Cathedral of the Sea by Ildefonso Falcones
Cathedral of the Sea by Ildefonso Falcones is one of my favorite books set in Barcelona. It’s a sweeping epic that takes place in the 14th century during Catalonia’s Golden Age, and when the iconic Santa Maria del Mar cathedral was being built.
We follow the story of Bernat Estanyol and his son Arnau, who flee their lives as country serfs to find work and a new start in the free city of Barcelona. I don’t want to give too much away, because one of the things I love about this book is the unpredictable journey it takes you on.
I especially recommend this Barcelona novel to those who enjoyed The Count of Monte Cristo, because it has similar themes of social rise and fall and a healthy dose of revenge. Plus, the Spanish Inquisition.
Related: Did you know that the Count of Monte Cristo prison is real, and you can visit it in the South of France?
It’s easy to understand how this novel became a bestseller in Spain. It’s long, but I remained riveted the entire book (I listened to theaudiobook when I was testing out Spotify audiobooks). It manages to balance the grandness of the age with the intimate humanness at the center of the story.
Cathedral of the Sea was published in Spanish in 2006 and translated into English in 2008. It’s been sold in more than 30 countries.
Related: I enjoyed this as an audiobook. I listened to it when I was trying out Spotify audiobooks, though the 15-hour monthly limit made that difficult. You can check out my reviews of alternative audiobookservices, Audible or Everand.
City of Wonders by Eduardo Mendoza
What Cathedral of the Sea is for medieval Barcelona, City of Wonders achieves for 19th-20th century Barcelona.
City of Wonders begins and ends with two World Fairs in Barcelona – beginning with the city’s first World Exhibition in 1888 and concluding with the International Exposition of 1929. Within this framework, we get a glimpse at the birth of Barcelona as a world city while following the story of Onofre Bouvila, a boy who leaves his family at the age of 13 to start over in the city.
Like Cathedral of the Sea, this is a long, ambitious book that covers a significant time period, with all the societal and personal upheavals and transformations that accompany it. Onofre begins as a poor nobody but quickly learns how to amass power and wealth through a life of scheming and crime.
Through Barcelona’s many growing pains, from a dire need for space and housing to military coups, increasing tensions with Madrid, and the first World War, Onofre finds ways to leverage each growing pain to ensure that his influence rises along with that of his city.
This Barcelona novel is a masterclass in historical fiction, with Mendoza’s beautiful writing translated from Spanish by Nick Caistor. I could never predict what would happen next, but I certainly enjoyed the ride.
You’ll enjoy this novel if you like historical fiction and following a character’s development over a lifetime rather than a simpler, singular story arc.
It was published in Spanish in 1986 and in English in 1990. The author, Eduardo Mendoza, grew up in Barcelona.
I discovered City of Wonders when browsing local sections of indie bookstores in Barcelona, one of my favorite ways to discover world reads.
Do you enjoy reading books set in different countries? I’ve designed a custom Read Around the World Journal specifically for readers who want to explore more world literature and track their progress. Make lists, color in bookshelves, and play Read Around the World Bingo in this unique reading tracker.
You can take a peek inside the journal, peruse my list of resources to help you on your reading journey, and order a copy if you think it’s the right fit for you!
In Diamond Square by Mercè Rodoreda
Mercè Rodoreda was a 20th century writer who was born in Barcelona but exiled during the Spanish Civil War. During her exile in France, she wrote of her home in Barcelona, preserving her memories of life and the city in her native language, Catalan.
She is widely considered the most important Catalan language writer and is the most translated author from Catalan into any other language.
In Diamond Square is Rodoreda’s best known novel, and having read and loved it myself, I can understand why. It’s a story that burrows deep inside you in the quietest of ways. This is a novel of a young woman named Natalia.
Natalia is happy with a stable boyfriend when she falls for the romantic thrills of Joe, a man she meets at a dance in Diamond Square. Believing this to be her grand love story, Natalia soon marries Joe, but the rose-colored glasses don’t last long as Joe begins to show his true colors.
The ensuing years bring children, hard work (for Natalia, anyway), a brood of pigeons breeding in their apartment, and the Spanish Civil War. We witness it all through the eyes of Natalia, experiencing life in Barcelona for those who weren’t fighting the wars, but living and struggling through the consequences of them back home.
Ultimately, though the novel is rife with struggle, it is a story of resilience, and of finding hope even in dark times.
This is a great Catalan novel for those who enjoy subtle fiction and beautiful prose. Gabriel Garcia Marquez declared it “the most beautiful novel published in Spain since the Civil War.”
In Diamond Square was fist published in Catalan in 1962 and translated into English by Peter Bush in 2013.
Related: Enjoy reading books set in unique places around the world? Check out my list of the best books set in Hawaii, my favorite books set in Greece, or my recommended novels set in Italy. Plus, sign up for my monthly newsletter, where I share exclusive Read Around the World book recommendations and share when I post more book lists.
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Luis Zafón
The Shadow of the Wind is probably the most widely known Barcelona novel on this list, but I include it because it is indeed worthy of recommendation.
In this novel, a teenage boy named Daniel works with his father in his Barcelona bookshop. One day, his father takes him to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, a hidden place filled with books no longer remembered by anyone.
Instructed by his father to choose a book for himself, Daniel discovers The Shadow of the Wind, perhaps the last remaining copy of any book written by Julian Carax. Daniel becomes obsessed with the novel and possessed with the idea of tracking down the author and solving the mystery of what happened to Julian Carax, and why his books have all been destroyed.
This novel is part mystery, part coming-of-age, part testament to the power of the written word. It’s also a fantastic book to open your eyes to hidden places in Barcelona; as Daniel tells Bea in the novel, “the memory of this city will pursue you and you’ll die of sadness.”
Zafón grew up in Barcelona and is passionate about his city. In an interview, he said:
“It is my hometown, a place I know like the palm of my hand, and I wanted to use this fantastic backdrop as an organic character, very much like the great novelists of the nineteenth century did in creating the London of Dickens, the Paris of Victor Hugo and Balzac, etc. Hopefully, after reading the novel the memory of Barcelona and the joy of the story will pursue the readers as well.”
This is a great novel to read if you’re looking for books for book lovers or books about libraries, if you enjoy novels with elements of mystery and adventure, and if you want to take a peek into modern Barcelona through the eyes of a Barcelona native.
The Shadow of the Wind was published in Spanish in 2001 and translated into English in 2004 and is a worldwide bestseller.
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Learning to Talk to Plants by Marta Orriols
Learning to Talk to Plants by Marta Orriols is a novel set in Barcelona with a very different feel from the others on this list. It takes place in modern Barcelona, and it focuses primarily on the main character’s internal story rather than any adventure or plot.
Specifically, this is a novel of complex grief. The same afternoon that Paula’s long-time partner tells her he is leaving her for another woman, he dies in a car accident. Learning to Talk to Plants tells the story of Paula’s first year of grief, as she navigates all the shock, betrayal, loneliness, and longing of losing the person she loved twice in one day.
We see Paula question what she mourns the most – his death or the death of their relationship through his betrayal. It’s a quiet, pensive book that explores grief with raw honesty.
I discovered this novel in the remarkable Ona bookstore in Barcelona, a bookshop dedicated to preserving and promoting books written in the Catalan language and one I highly recommend visiting when in Barcelona.
It is also part of a movement to push for more Catalan books to get translated into other languages, and I have to say, that’s a movement I wholeheartedly get behind, having loved both Catalan titles I’ve read thus far. On average, fewer than 20 books a year are translated from Catalan.
Marta Orriols is a Spanish writer who lives in Barcelona. Learning to Talk to Plants won the Omnium Cultural Prize for the best Catalan novel. It was published in 2018 in Catalan and 2020 in English.
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