The Ambassador of Spain to India, José María Ridao, stressed the importance of editing in Spanish as an instrument of that strategy: “I value the outstanding work of publishers like Penguin Random House for exploring the possibility of publishing Spanish classics in India, making these outstanding texts affordable. This will definitely help Spanish learning students to read the best works of Spain´s literature in their original language.”

To celebrate this collaboration, the Embassy of Spain organised a concert to celebrate World Book Day in association with Penguin Random House and the cultural tradition of St George’s Day, where people exchange a book for a rose. 

Soprano Minerva Moliner and pianist Alejandro Picó-Leonís performed at the Spanish music concert, Visca L’amor. Both artists concluded their visit to Delhi by delivering a masterclass to the students of the Neemrana Foundation to promote opera in India. Many representatives of the diplomatic community, including several European and Latin American Ambassadors, and the US Ambassador attended the event and participated in the tradition. 

Gaurav Shrinagesh, CEO, Penguin Random House India & Southeast Asia, said, “Penguin is pleased to collaborate with the Embassy of Spain to bring some of the greatest, most timeless literary works in the original Spanish language to Indian readers. It is only art, culture, and literature that let us transcend borders and come together as a larger community, and Spanish is one of the more popular foreign languages in India. So, it was only a matter of time before original Spanish-language books found their way into our bookstores and bookshelves. I am confident that this access to classics in their original language will be much appreciated by the reading community in India.”

Recently, the Spain Embassy and Penguin Random House India collaborated with 11 bookstores in four Indian cities and participated in the Spanish tradition consisting of exchanging a book for a rose, commemorating St George’s Day in India. 

Hundreds of red roses were offered to all the people who visited and bought a book in Delhi-NCR (Bahrisons Booksellers, Khan Market and Vasant Kunj; Bahrisons Booksellers Galleria; Kool Skool), Bengaluru (Blossom Book House; The Bookhive; The Bookworm; Higginbothams), Kolkata (Starmark), and Mumbai (Title Waves).

Penguin Random House had also put up a stall to sell books outside Stein Auditorium where all the buyers received a rose in exchange for a book.