Crime in Catalunya , Murder in the Mediterranean, Blackmail in Barcelona, the dark quiet streets of El Raval play host to the 7th annual NOIR Book Festival celebrating the best mystery writers from around the globe.

With various games, readings and films BCNegra is sure to please any fan of the genre looking to meet the authors and make new friends.

 This year the festival evolves with a culinary take on the Noir festival, expanding to local bars and restaurants each creating special drinks or menus and hosting various afterparties.

For more information on readings, events and films check out the BCNegra Schedule HERE or you can go directly to the festivals website at http://www.bcn.cat/cultura/bcnegra/2011/

BCN NEGRA 2011-Runs until Feburary 5 2011.

 Location: Various points of the city.

Opened just a few weeks ago, MUTT has already become Barcelona’s premier social network. A magnet for the city’s graphic designers, photographers and fashion junkies- this white temple of art and fashion is the perfect place to find rare books and meet new people.

Located in the Borne on C/Comerc, Mutt  has moved into the old iguapop space, and has already won over Barcelona’s most colorful locals, with an amazing opening party packed wall to wall with MUTTERS (The United Association Of People Who Love Mutt)

 It seems like the owners have found the perfect balance between art and design. Mutt  has  managed to open a store in  Barcelona which not only blends perfectly with the neighborhood but also serves as an art gallery  which supports  local artists while providing tables filled with books covering  the best in global design and limited edition runs. From international fashion magazines to independent Fanzines, Mutt has everything you will not find at FNAC which makes MUTT the number one places to go when looking for some inspiration.

To become a MUTTER stop by

MUTT
Comerç, 15
08003. Barcelona
info@mutt.es
Tel: +34 931 924 438

A simple concrete space  that, over the years, has become the go to place for all creative minds.Often copied but never reproduced RAS is the original Barcelona design bookstore.

With the symphony of chaos outside- once inside its door RAS, feels like a decompression chamber.  A temple dedicated to those with on a hunt for trends and inspiration. Sitting quietly on Doctor Dou Street, the shop  is unique due to its vast collection of magazines, design books and an art/ lecture space in the back. Just a few steps from the MACBA and CCCB, it has become upper Raval’s  epicenter of art and culture in an area that up until a few years ago, was the sort of place that you avoided at all costs.  With countless books to choose from Ras will make a believer out of anyone.

RAS BCN

C/Doctor Dou 10- Barcelona  _ Tues-Sat 11am-9pm_93.412.71.99

  photo by: David Naveira

        Seven months ago I packed up my things and left the pastel colored buildings of South Beach, for the more exciting city of Barcelona. Part Spanish myself, I thought it would be easier to assimilate. It was harder than I thought…However, one book did change save my life…

  ”The Weird & Wonderful Guide To Barcelona” by LeCool.

While  Vicky and Cristina were spending time in a basically non-existent Barcelona, I sat in a café in the Born, listening to a guitar player and flipping through the copy of my little red book.  Filled with tips and illustrated maps, this book is packed with information on every neighborhood and is compiled using tips from people on the streets, waiters as well as local celebrities. That afternoon was perhaps my best day in Barcelona and it did not involve an encounter with Javier Bardem.

For those of you coming to Barcelona, take heed. As soon as you arrive in the city- ditch you bags in your hotel and find a book store and buy this  Barcelona bible. If you weren’t a believer in the church of LeCool you will be by the time you have your 3rd encimada. 

To buy the little red book try the bookstores at the MACBA or CCCB or any other small bookstore or lifestyle store.

For more info on LeCool click on the logo.

The Gothic Quarter at 4am on a school night, Montjuic at dusk,  El raval at 7am, all the type of places your mother warned you about but you never listened.

Only those who live in  Barcelona know how well the city keeps her secrets. Dimly lit  narrow streets, and strangers lurking everywhere.

Twelve young authors shed some light  on twelve real crimes in Barcelona, many of them quite recent. This is the premise the narrators of Matar en Barcelona (To kill in Barcelona) have based their fiction short stories. In this anthology, the authors have tracked a series of murders through news articles and other witnesses to build twelve stories inspired in the most mysterious crimes in the city’s history.

Matar en Barcelona comes as the second installment of a trilogy that started with Odio Barcelona (Melusina, 2008).

The vampire woman of the Ponent Street, the  Eixample serial rapist or the killer of old women are the protagonists of these short stories in which fiction fuses with chronicles in an exercise to blur the boundaries of the nouvelle noir, post-modern short stories and urban myths. Pure invention comes by the hand of journalist chronicles.

For more Information: