Carmen Amoraga wins the 70th Nadal literary award

Barcelona (ACN).- The novel ‘La vida era eso’ by journalist Carmen Amoraga (Picanya, Valencia, 1969) has won the Nadal Award, in the 70^th anniversary of this literary prize given by Destino publishing house. The archaeologist and archiver Albert Villaró (La Seu d’Urgell, 1964) with his novel ‘Els ambaixadors’ was awarded the Josep Pla Prize for prose in Catalan, also given by Destino, on the same evening. Amoraga’s book tells the story of a woman who dives into the social networks after the death of her husband. The novel by Villaró invents an alternative outcome of the historical facts that happened in October 1934, when the Catalan President Lluís Companys proclaimed the “Catalan State of the Spanish Federal Republic”. As it does every year the traditional literary gala took place on the evening of the 6^th of January, a bank holiday in Catalonia when kids and family members wake up in the morning to discover presents delivered during the night by the Three Wise Men (in a similar way to the Anglo-Saxon Santa Claus). The ceremony took place at the Hotel Palace in Barcelona and the veteran writer Ana María Matute – who won the Nadal Award in 1959 – handed the prize to Carmen Amoraga.

The novel by the Valencian writer won the Nadal Award beating 230 other original manuscripts. Amoraga first of all thanked Ana María Matute, saying that she had never imagined that such an excellent writer would ever be giving her a prize. Furthermore, Amoraga also wanted to send a special thank you to her friend who inspired her to write ‘La vida era eso’. According to Amoraga, the book tells a story about loss, pain, lost friendship, but it is also about love and hope, “because learning how to handle loss is also a way of learning how to live”, she said.

Carmen Amoraga was born in Picanya, in Valencia (also called Valencian Country) in 1969. She studied Journalism and has worked in several radio and television stations. She also participates in media debates and contributes to several publications. With her first novel, titled ‘Para que nada se pierda’, she won the 2^nd Seville’s Ateneo Joven Novel Award. With ‘La larga noche’ she was awarded the Crítica Valenciana Prize. ‘Todas las caricias. Algo tan parecido al amor’ had already been short-listed for the 2007 Nadal Award and ‘El tiempomientrastanto’ was also short-listed for the Planeta Prize of 2010, which is the most prestigious book award given for a book written in Spanish.

‘Els ambaixadors’, by Albert Villaró, won the 46^th Josep Pla Award, given to prose written in Catalan language. It is a thriller about espionage which takes place in the 1940s, inventing an alternative past from an alternative outcome of the historical events of October 1934. Villaró speculates on what would have happened if the proclamation of a Catalan State by Lluís Companys had ended differently, in a literary game of historical fiction. Villaró’s book beat 22 other original manuscripts. The writer from La Seu d’Urgell (in the Catalan Pyrenees) said that his first literary prize was receiving two books by Josep Pla and now he was winning a literary award named after this famous Catalan writer.

Albert Villaró was born at La Seu d’Urgell in 1964. He is an archaeologist and studied Geography and History. He is now working as Director of the Tourism and Culture Department of Andorra La Vella’s City Council (the capital city of Andorra). He also contributes to local newspapers such as Diari Segre and Diari d’Andorra. In 1994 he received the Anna Dodas Memorial Award for his books ‘La selva moral’. In 2003 he received the Néstor Luján Award for historical novels for his book ‘L’any dels francs’. In 2006 he received the Carlemany award for ‘Blau de Prússia’.