Record 385 books translated from Catalan into other languages in 2025

Translations of Catalan books have seen a boom in the last decade, reaching a new peak last year with a record, to date, of 385 works translated into other languages.

Editions in Spanish dominate this sector, with a third of the total, but in 2025 there was also a record number of translations in all other languages.

The director of the Ramon Llull Institute's Literature Department, Izaskun Arretxe, celebrated the "sustained" growth seen in recent years, but believes that "there is still a long way to go before it reaches its peak."

In particular, she highlights the momentum behind children's and young adult literature, which now accounts for nearly half of the translations.

The institution attends 13 international literature fairs annually, which is where the sale of rights between publishers and literary agents takes place. The Llull Institute attends many of these fairs and advises and produces materials so that international publishers can learn about Catalan literature.

It also helps foreign publishers by subsidizing the translation and promotion of books.

Arretxe clarifies, however, that the grants do not include publication costs, so publishers "have to want" to publish, as they also have to invest in it.

In 2024, there were 369 titles translated from Catalan, which was the previous record.

In 2019, the figure exceeded 300 for the first time and hasn't dropped below this threshold since.

Not counting Spanish, there were 257 titles translated last year, also a record high.

Behind Spanish with 128 works last year, comes Italian, with 37. Next in the list is Portuguese with 33, including the dialects of Portugal and Brazil, ahead of French, with 22.

The ranking continues with German (17), ahead of English (16), Greek (15) and Arabic (10).

Counting all translations made from 2000 to early 2026, the works that have been translated into the most languages ​​are the fantasy novel 'Cold Skin' by Albert Sánchez Piñol, and the illustrated children's book 'The Color Monster', by Anna Llenas.

Both works have been translated into 33 different languages, counting Portuguese from Portugal and Brazil.