95-Year-Old Andorran Artist Sergi Mas Returns to Fiction After 20 Years with 'Tafetans de justícia'

At 95, Andorran artist and writer Sergi Mas has ended a 20-year break from fiction with *Tafetans de justícia*, published by Editorial Medusa. The pocket-sized collection completes a trilogy of his fictional works, drawing on direct experiences or accounts from protagonists to evoke a bygone Andorra—once dubbed the "Shangri-la of the Pyrenees" by Mas himself.

Hailing from La Massana parish, Mas shifted to non-fiction prose two decades ago before returning to storytelling. The book arrived unconventionally: during a home visit, editor David Gálvez received handwritten vignettes in a reused envelope, alongside manual edits and original drawings. The publisher transcribed the difficult script by hand, matching each *tafetà*—Mas's word for these brief "biographies"—with illustrations from folk imagery to cryptic motifs, including a white horse fading into snow and the recurring "La gran rubia," a large blonde dog.

The tales portray an Andorra guided by common sense and humanity over rigid laws, laced with subtle irony. Characters blend reality and myth: Monsieur Delespí (or Espí), a wizard-like figure who moved from waterproofing products to drowning in a La Vall prison cell after a legendary binge; the "ghost of the stains," a Cuban-Pyrenean arts patron amid cats, books, and paintings; iron-willed women like Lola, the "black lady of Auvinyà," famed for winning lawsuits; engineer Menéndez startling a herd of cows; Uruguayan engraver Carlos Fossati provoking arrest for prison meals; a priest opening Meritxell's reliquary; and links to a hitman tied to Al Capone or Dillinger, plus Perpignan tales and figures like Gru de Moctezuma.

The 24 March launch at Centre Cultural Lauredià—near Mas's attic studio—drew emotion without the author, who stayed home for health reasons. Family members voiced excerpts on mountain scenes and memories, joined by cultural figures Txema Díaz-Torrent, Eva Arasa, Manel Gibert, Teresa Areny, and Andrés Luengo for live readings. Gálvez noted Mas's arrival in Aixovall nearly 70 years ago, by chance to help carve Rabassa's Sant Cristòfol, planting roots at Casa Duró amid the era's vibrant "fauna and flora."