Leonardo Padura is one of the candidates for the 2020 Nobel Prize in Literature

June 11, 2020

The Cuban writer Leonardo Padura is on the list of candidates for the Nobel Prize in Literature, whose winner will receive the award in December.

"The name of Leonardo Padura appears on the list of candidates for the Nobel Prize in Literature this year," published on Facebook one of the publishing houses that handles the work of the Havana-born narrator.

Other Latin American writers being considered are Chilean Raúl Zurita, Venezuelan Rafael Cadenas, and Colombians Fernando Vallejo and Juan Gabriel Vásquez.

"The ceremony is scheduled for December 10 in Stockholm, pending to see if the ceremony will be in-person or virtual depending on how the coronavirus pandemic evolves," clarifies the post from Aurelia Ediciones, specialized in Cuban literature.

The Spanish newspaper El País recently announced that "the most famous literary draw in the world is about to happen and has only five balls inside it."

These days, about 18 Swedish academics are studying from home the works of the five finalists for the Nobel Prize in Literature. The race began with about 200 authors at the beginning of the year.

However, El País consulted with publishers and writers; among the predictions, Africa is mentioned insistently as the place of origin of the laureate, although with the Nobel "anything can happen."

Leonardo Padura has previously questioned the prize, which according to him "needs a revision."

"I would give the Nobel Prize in Music to Bob Dylan. But Philip Roth died and didn't get the Nobel. Kundera is going to die and he didn't get it either. And before, to mention two indisputable examples in the Spanish language, neither Borges nor Carpentier had it," he criticized in an interview with El País.

The Cuban, Princess of Asturias Prize winner in 2015, has written the best of his literary work in the sub-genre of "noir novel," notably the tetralogy The Four Seasons, and his character Mario Conde.

He has also published The Novel of My Life, the renowned The Man Who Loved Dogs, and Heretics, among others greatly appreciated especially by audiences.

Padura, 65 years old, is scheduled to publish his new novel Like Dust in the Wind at the end of 2020, a story that begins in the severe economic crisis known as the "Special Period" in the 90s, and draws a timeline until 2016.

With this narrative, his emblematic character of the "disillusioned" detective Mario Conde will return, although he draws parallels with his surroundings. The book's theme has a direct relationship with the Cuban diaspora and the personal conflicts it has caused in society.