César Pérez Gellida received the award for his thriller set in Extremadura. César Pérez Gellida's career has been more than recognized over the years as one of the best voices of the noir genre in Spain.
Success to which he added the fact of winning the prestigious -and longest running- Nadal Prize, which is given every year on the night of January 6 in Barcelona.
He did so without abandoning the dark mood typical of his writing in a story entitled “Bajo la tierra seca,” in the form of what is now called rural noir.
The organization said he beat out 824 other manuscripts after deliberation by a jury made up of writers Inés Martín Rodrigo (last year's winner), Care Santos, Lorenzo Silva, Andrés Trapiello and editor Emili Rosales. The prize is endowed with €30,000 and the winning novel will be published on February 7 under the Destino publishing label.
