Gemma Lienas: ‘People don’t want to pay for books, conferences, classes…’

In our second #CatalanTalk interview, we talked to @GemmaLienas, who is a novelist, feminist, and now chocolatier. Lienas’ first novel in 1986, Cul de Sac [Dead End], was a break-out bestseller. She is best known for the Carlota’s Diaries #YA series, whose books have sold more than 100,000 copies each. She has also been awarded many literary prizes, including the Ramon Llull Prize for El final del joc [The end of the game].

Last month, @GemmaLienas decided to pursue another passion: chocolate, with her new Xocolatíssim store in the Gràcia neighborhood of Barcelona. #CatalanTalk

We are pleased to offer an exclusive English-language translation of @GemmaLienas story to #CatalanTalk readers.

Thanks to our team of translators—@rodolfgimeno (ES), @estherroig (CA), @RocaBatista (FR), and @monikambK (DE)—the interview is also available in Catalan, Spanish, French, and German.

The following is a transcript of our interview on Twitter on January 9th. You can read future interviews by following #CatalanTalk. Consult our calendar to see who’s coming up! Next Monday at 17h CET (11am EST, 8am PST), we’ll be talking to Oriol Junqueras, president of ERC (Catalan Republican Left) and leader of the opposition in the Catalan Parliament.