MADRID – Spanish writer Eduardo Mendoza was on Wednesday awarded this year’s Miguel de Cervantes Prize, a prestigious literary recognition of outstanding achievements in the Spanish language.
The jury-selected winner was announced by the Spanish Minister of Education, Culture and Sport, Iñigo Mendez de Vigo, during a press conference in Madrid.
According to the jury, Mendoza forged a new narrative path with his 1975 “The Truth About the Savolta Case,” a crime novel set in post World War I Barcelona, narrated through court testimonies, character memories and judicial and police documents.
President of the jury Pedro Alvarez de Miranda said Mendoza was a pure novelist and “Savolta” was a milestone in Spanish literature.
He highlighted the writer’s use of humor as a key ingredient in literature, which is evident in works like “No Word from Gurb,” which follows an alien wandering around Barcelona in the early 1990s trying to find his friend.