“Loriga won this year’s prize for his novel, Rendición, which he entered under the pseudonym Sebastián Verón, the name of a former football player. The author Ray Loriga (Madrid, 1967) is the winner of this year’s Alfagura prize – 2017 marks the twentieth anniversary of the prize – for the novel Victoria (Victory)
which he entered under the pseudonym Sebastián Verón (the name of a former Argentinian football player) and will be published as Rendición (Rendition). The award consists of $175,000 USD (approximately 164,000 EUR) and a sculpture by the artist Martín Chiniro, from the Canary Islands.
Founded in 1964 and relaunched in 1998, the Alfaguara prize has amassed two million sales over two decades, on both shores: the prize is markedly transatlantic. Previous winners of the prize include Manuel Vicent, Sergio Ramírez, Eliseo Alberto, Elena Poniatowska, Laura Restrepo, Santiago Roncagliolo, Juan Gabriel Vásquez o Eduardo Sacheri.”
Ray Loriga (Madrid, 1967), novelist, screenwriter and director, is the author of the novels La peor de todo, Héroes, Caídos del cielo, Tokio ya no nos quiere, Trífero, El hombre que inventó Manhattan and Ya solo habla de amor. He has also published the collections of stories Días extraños, Días aún más extraños and Los oficiales y el destino de Cordelia. Translated into 16 languages, he is one of the most highly regarded authors, by both national and international critics. As a screenwriter for the cinema he has collaborated, among others, with Pedro Almodóvar and Carlos Saura.
Read more: Ferran Bono, El País, April 5th
