Manuel Vilas wins the Nadal Award with 'Nosotros', his ninth novel

Manuel Vilas, poet and writer.Santi Burgos

Manuel Vilas has been proclaimed this Friday in Barcelona the winner of the Nadal Novel Prize for

while Gemma Ventura has won the Pla de Novel in Catalan with

a work with which she makes her debut in literature.

Both books address the loss and memory of a loved one.

The delivery at the traditional dinner of the 79th Nadal Prize for novels and the 55th Josep Pla Prize for narrative, one of the essential events of Catalan and Spanish culture organized by the Destino publishing house, has resumed face-to-face two years later.

Curiously, the two winning works this year are marked by a theme that revolves around death, loneliness and memory.

The novel

by the writer and collaborator of EL PAÍS Manuel Vilas (Barbastro, Huesca, 60 years old), has won the Nadal.

The book, available from February 1, tells how a "woman of our time" remembers and invokes who was the love of her life.

Irene, the protagonist, believes that she has lived the most perfect marriage in the world.

“With the loss of her husband, Marcelo, her world is broken.

She then embarks on a trip along the Mediterranean coast of the country where she will discover an unusual way to continue living with him to move forward ”.

In his own words, the writer has described the protagonist as a "rebel with a cause" woman who "does not admit having lost" the "love that gave meaning to her life" and undertakes "a challenge against nature" to revive it.

He has clarified that the title

comes from a bolero by Los Panchos and that it is inspired by the melancholic stories of this musical genre.

Vilas has also claimed that he conceives the novel, according to Samuel Johnson's definition, as "a story that almost always talks about love."

With a degree in Hispanic Philology from the University of Zaragoza, Vilas was a finalist for the Premio Planeta for his novel

in 2019. He debuted in the genre with

in 2008

and other novels such as

or

followed .

literary supplement

and won the Fémina prize for best foreign novel in France.

He is also the author of the novel biography

El Pla has awarded the first novel by Gemma Ventura (El Vendrell, Barcelona, ​​32 years old), a primary school teacher with musical training.

About

the jury has highlighted “an extraordinary lyricism”.

The story centers on a young woman who watches over her grandfather in an imaginary town.

“In full solitude, she has two great companies: that of her memory and that of her imagination.

With an intimate and magical air, the book tells us about the people who are not there but who are close to us;

of the love that we make exist when we need it and of how we make up for each absence”.

The winner thanked her mother for having endured her "insecurity attacks" and the writer Josep María Espinàs for "encouraging me to write".

Regarding her novel, she has highlighted: “The protagonist is physically alone in a room, but not internally.

The best thing we have is the imagination.”

Nadal's endowment has almost doubled with 30,000 euros (previously 18,000) and has received 997 works, highlighting historical, police and intimate novels.

The jury is made up of the writer Emili Rosales and other previously awarded authors: Lorenzo Silva (in 2000), Andrés Trapiello (2003), Alicia Giménez Bartlett (2011) and Care Santos (2017).

The Pla, whose amount has also increased from 6,000 to 10,000 euros, has obtained 37 proposed titles by Catalan-speaking authors with genres such as historical novels, memorial narratives, and fantasy.

The jury is made up of Laia Aguilar and Marc Artigau (winners in 2020 and 2019 respectively), as well as Montse Barderi, Manuel Forcano and Glòria Gasch.

The winners of the previous edition were the journalists Irene Martín Rodrigo, awarded the Nadal for

, and Toni Cruanyes, awarded the Pla for

Both have been present at the dinner and award ceremony this Friday at the El Palace hotel in Barcelona, ​​along with other writers such as Pere Gimferrer, Carme Riera, Jordi Amat, Antoni Bassas, Marta Orriols, Benedetta Tagliabue or Albert Villaró.

Authorities such as the mayoress of Barcelona, ​​Ada Colau;

the Minister of Culture, Natàlia Garriga;

and the first deputy mayor of Barcelona;

Jaume Collboni.

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