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Unquestionable quality" and ability "to convince very diverse audiences and generations". A shared "honor": for the writer and for the prize.
This is how the Cuban writer Leonardo Padura, jury of the Princess of Asturias Award, explained the election of the Japanese author Haruki Murakami as the winner in the 2023 edition and that became a trend in social networks, even with memes.
The news that Murakami received the Princess of Asturias Award for Literature was planted on Twitter and was celebrated by anonymous readers who took advantage of the recognition to share their reading experiences. But there was also room for wit and mockery, because many other users jumped on the joke of the "eternal candidate" by pointing out that Spain was ahead of the Swedish Academy.
"You didn't win the Nobel but..."
Between memes and ironies that played with the idea that Asturias is a minor prize to the Nobel Prize for Literature, Murakami's name was located as a Twitter trend in Spain.
One user, Gilda Guerrero, wrote: "Murakami haters and guardians of LITERATURE (in golden italics). Come one at a time."
Leonardo Padura. The Cuban author, who won the Princess of Asturias and was now a jury. EFE
In that line also expressed several users in front of the minor but noisy criticism for the choice of Japanese who bet on generating a "controversy", which the followers of Japanese avoided.
What happened is that most expressed gratitude for the recognition of a writer whose work has long been claiming a place at the literary top, positioning himself among the favorites in the previous important prizes, such as the Nobel Prize for Literature.
"You didn't win the Nobel but you hit him on the stick," tweeted from the Argentine bookstore Notanpuan.
Although the recognition of the public already consolidated him some time ago with a solid community of readers around the world who receive his books with anxiety, Murakami also revalidated his work from the perspective of criticism.
From the jury
Full jury. From the 2023 Princess of Asturias Award, in Oviedo, Spain. EFE
"He has managed to communicate with readers from all over the world and from different generations and has shed light on our shadows and on our lights," Padura summarized.
The Cuban author, awarded in 2015 with the same prize, considered "very deserved" this award that "honors the writer Murakami, but Murakami also honors the prize, and that is a very satisfactory cultural negotiation."
The Spanish playwright Juan Mayorga, who won the Princess of Letters in its previous edition, was also part of the jury, and who agreed with the Cuban author in the good news that supposes that "this meeting" between this award and a "magnificent" writer like Murakami has taken place.
Murakami "managed to communicate with readers around the world and from different generations and has shed light on our shadows and on our lights," he added.
Gonzalo Celorio. The writer and director of the Mexican Academy of Language, Gonzalo Celorio, member of the jury of the 2023 Princess of Asturias Award for Literature. EFE
For his part, the Mexican editor, essayist and literary critic Gonzalo Celorio, also a member of the jury -among other specialists-, stressed "the absolute consensus" generated by the candidacy of Murakami, who competed with 36 other authors, which led to the award unanimously, a circumstance that, he said, had never occurred since he was part of the jury.
Murakami (Kyoto, 1949) was awarded for "the uniqueness of his literature, its universal reach, its ability to reconcile Japanese tradition and the legacy of Western culture in an ambitious and innovative narrative" and for his ability to express some of "the great themes and conflicts of our time," according to the ruling.
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