I meet Javier at the station of Sant Adrià del Besòs, his hometown, and he guides me through the beach and the streets near the train tracks, landscapes of his childhood and youth. It's a rainy day, almost in black and white, very appropriate for the portrait session. Today the sea is angry, and we stand for a while to admire it, always under the exaggerated presence of the old thermal power plant chimneys.
Javier has a shy, modest appearance, like someone who does not want to bother. But behind this discreet aspect, there is a character with a very rich world, with an original and surprising discourse where humor, the fiercest criticism, erudition and surrealism are mixed. I tell him how much I liked his latest book El año del Búfalo, which he is promoting these days all over Spain, and I ask him what other book of his he recommends. Paseos con mi madre, he tells me smiling, is the one that people like the most.
Javier Pérez Andújar has a degree in Hispanic Philology from the University of Barcelona.
Author of the books Los príncipes valientes (finalist for the Premio de Novela Fundación Lara 2007, and Premio Qwerty de BTV 2008 to the revelation author in Spanish), Salvador Dalí: A la conquista de lo irracional, Todo lo que se llevó el diablo, Paseos con mi madre, Milagro en Barcelona (with photographs by Joan Guerrero), Catalanes todos, Diccionario enciclopédico de la vieja escuela (Estado Crítico essay award 2016), La noche fenomenal and El año del Búfalo (Herralde novel award 2021).
He currently collaborates in the radio program A Vivir Que Son Dos Días (cadena SER) and in the supplement Llegim of the newspaper Ara. He has also collaborated in the television programs Saló de Lectura (BTV) and L'Hora del Lector (Canal 33); in the magazines Taifa, of which he was editor-in-chief, El Ciervo, Tapas Magazine, Ajoblanco, Rockdelux, Globe, and in the newspapers El Periódico de Catalunya and El País. In 2014 he received the City of Barcelona Media Award for his chronicles published in the catalan edition of El País. He has also collaborated in the fanzine Mondo Brutto and was co-founder of the fanzines Flandis Mandis and Lardín. He has translated into Spanish the Asterix album: El cielo se nos cae encima! (Salvat, 2005).