Seventh Journey : Andorra
Discovering one of Europe's smallest sovereign states
5/29/2026
A Very Welcome Helping Hand
Andorra occupies a rather unique place in the French consciousness: it is a country whose existence is known to everyone, in sharp contrast to its history and culture. Yet two major obstacles stand in the way of anyone wishing to explore it in greater depth. First, the Andorran population is small — just over 85,000 people — and literary output naturally reflects that demographic reality. Second, the official language is Catalan, a language that is considerably less widely known and translated than Spanish.
As a result, identifying the relevant books and finding translations can prove to be a challenge — if not an insurmountable one, then at least a demanding one.
Fortunately, I was able to benefit from the recommendations of Her Excellency Esther Rabasa Grau, Ambassador of the Principality of Andorra to France, who kindly agreed to suggest books to me in both French and English. Needless to say, this is an invaluable contribution, entirely in keeping with the spirit of Voyages Livresques, and I can only extend my most sincere thanks to her.
Here is the list, which will be of interest to anyone wishing to learn more about Andorra's history and literature:
Mademoiselle Keaton and Other Creatures by Teresa Colom
New Description of the Principality and Valleys of Andorra by Albert Villaró
Nine Legends by Carli Bastida
Romanesque Art in Andorra by Mireia Garcia
The Elephant Museum by Joan Peruga
Manual Digest Compendium
Manela by Josep Dallerès
History of Andorra: Eleven Key Moments by Oliver Vergés
Mosaic by Iñaki Rubio
Laser by Frank Garcia
Stylites of Andorra by Manuel Montobbio
Chronicles of the Unforeseen, Writers Circle of Andorra, COMMIT Books (2024)
In short, I tried to obtain all of them. Some were very easy to find; others are entirely inaccessible, even when they are still in print. I am thinking in particular of books published by Anem — such as Stylites of Andorra, Mosaic, and so on — which are available for purchase but cannot be shipped to anyone outside Andorra or Spain. For delivery to France, the publisher's website invites you to get in touch by email, but I never received a reply. French resellers, if they exist at all, are admirably well hidden, and second-hand copies on the rare occasions they appear are priced at over €100 — sometimes several hundred — which led me to abandon those titles.
The hunt for the Manual Digest Compendium was quite an adventure in itself. It is an abridgement of a 1748 text known as the Bible of Andorra, setting out its political organisation along with Andorran customs and traditions. French and English translations of this central text were made available for the first time in 2023 by the Andorran General Council, which is an excellent development. Unfortunately, those translations are near-ghosts. I believe I contacted every major Andorran institution, every publisher, every bookshop; I searched in multiple languages, with image searches and roundabout methods, trying to track them down — and found no trace of them whatsoever. I know that the General Council Library and the University of Andorra Library each hold a copy, but I cannot travel there to consult one in person. Some websites mention the existence of a PDF, but it is nowhere to be found. I have watched videos of tourists filming themselves with a copy, yet every shop that might conceivably stock it has no website. Some people believe in ghosts; I believe in the Manual Digest Compendium.
In the end, here are the four books I managed to obtain:
Mademoiselle Keaton and Other Creatures by Teresa Colom
Nine Legends by Carli Bastida
Romanesque Art in Andorra by Mireia Garcia
New Description of the Principality and Valleys of Andorra by Albert Villaró — who is, incidentally, also the author of the Manual Digest Compendium…
I added to this list the Que sais-je? volume on Andorra, to have at least a little general history to draw on.