Leonardo Padura wins the Barcino Historical Novel Prize

October 11, 2018

Cuban writer Leonardo Padura has won the Barcino International Historical Novel Prize, which is awarded as part of the Barcelona Novela Histórica literary competition, which reaches its sixth edition this year, according to an announcement today by the Institut de Cultura de Barcelona, organizer of the event.

The jury decided to award the prize to Padura because his works "are novels written with the resources of the noir genre that become existential, social and, naturally, historical narratives."

"In the same way that we learned to know the Spanish Transition with Pepe Carvalho and much of the history of twentieth-century U.S. with Harry Rabbit Angstrom by John Updike, the best way to stroll through revolutionary Cuba is in the company of the great Mario Conde," protagonist of Padura's novels, the jury added.

Leonardo Padura (Havana, 1955) received the Princess of Asturias Prize for Letters in 2015 for his body of work and is known internationally for the series of detective novels featuring detective Mario Conde. Padura is also the author of other notable literary works such as La novela de mi vida, Herejes, the collection of short stories Aquello estaba deseando ocurrir and El hombre que amaba a los perros, about the figure of Trotsky and his assassin, Ramón Mercader.

Padura will receive the Barcino International Historical Novel Prize on November 8 at the Saló de Cent of the Barcelona City Hall. The jury of the sixth Barcino International Historical Novel Prize is composed of journalist Òscar López, novelist Care Santos, cultural journalist Sergi Doria, writer Enric Calpena and the commissioner of Barcelona Novela Histórica, Fèlix Riera, who is the jury president. Previously, writers Lindsey Davis, Santiago Posteguillo, Simon Scarrow, Christian Jacq and Arturo Pérez-Reverte have received this prize.