Ten of the best books set in Barcelona

Malcolm Burgess is the publisher of Oxygen Books' City-Lit series, featuring writing on cities including Berlin, Paris, London, Amsterdam, Venice and Dublin.

For the Guardian, in 2011 he named ten of the best books set in Barcelona, including:

Carlos Ruiz Zafón, The Shadow of the Wind, 2001

The marvellous gothic literary thriller, set in the aftermath of the Spanish civil war, that leaves no Barcelonan carrer or plaça unvisited!

"Els Quatre Gats was just a five-minute walk from our house and one of my favourite haunts … Inside, voices seemed to echo with shadows of other times. Accountants, dreamers, and would-be geniuses shared tables with the spectres of Pablo Picasso, Isaac Albéniz, Federico García Lorca and Salvador Dalí."
• Carrer Montsió

Read about the other books on the list.

Learn about Carlos Ruiz Zafón's top 10 20th-century gothic novels.

--Marshal Zeringue