Pavel Giroud is a finalist in the Azorín Novel Prize from Planeta publisher

March 1, 2022

Cuban filmmaker and screenwriter Pável Giroud was selected as a finalist in the 2022 Azorín Novel Prize. The literary competition is organized by the Provincial Government of Alicante (in eastern Spain) and Grupo Planeta. The director of films such as El acompañante (2015) was selected among the ten authors with a chance to win the award.

According to what Giroud published on his Facebook profile, the novel now being evaluated by the Spanish jury was one of his goals that emerged during the pandemic. "Habana nostra" is the title of the book that could turn out to be the winner this Thursday when the jury's decision is made public.

"When the pandemic arrived, and the projects I was working on got bogged down, it seemed like everything was falling apart. Then I decided to fulfill two old desires: make a documentary film about a topic that obsessed me and write my first novel. The film, about which I still cannot reveal anything, is already finished, and the novel has just been announced as a finalist for the Azorín Prize from Planeta publisher. Every cloud has a silver lining," the filmmaker announced on his Facebook wall.

The Cuban's novel was selected as a finalist from a total of 223 works submitted, which come from the Spanish provinces of Alicante, Valencia, Asturias, Cáceres and Madrid (three in this case), as well as from Bogotá (Colombia) and Sweden.

The prize purse is set at 45,000 euros and in this twenty-ninth edition the award will have, for the first time in two years, 100% capacity, according to reports from a press conference.

This is an edition in which women are "very prominent in all the stories," whereas "other years they appeared more in a secondary role," noted Carlos Crehueras, head of Institutional Relations for Grupo Planeta, and Julia Parra, cultural deputy for the Provincial Government of Alicante.

It was also emphasized that the 223 novels submitted have made this edition the fifth with the largest number of works, received mainly from Spain, "but also from America and other countries in Europe," while noting that the majority of them are historical novels (70%), 20% are crime novels, and 10% are set in the present day.

Crehueras also stated that "there is no pattern" for success in winning the Azorín Prize, although he highlighted the "visibility, prestige, and stamp" that this award provides.