One of the best attended annual gatherings of Spanish-language writers anywhere is held in Gijón, in northern Spain, and every year they unveil their pick of newly published books by their peers.

The Semana Negra (“Noir Week”) prizes have no major sponsors or money attached, just the enormous prestige they have gathered in 30 editions of the festival, to which one million people flock every summer.

In keeping with the festival’s tradition of eliminating what it sees as false boundaries between high- and low-brow literature, the prizes cover a number of categories which are entertaining yet thought-provoking, original and informative.

Here are the five prize-winners from the 2017 festival whose books would make great holiday reading this summer: David Llorente, José María Espinar, Miguel Barrero, Sofía Rhei and Javier Azpeitia

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