Writer

Novelist, journalist and screenwriter, was awarded the Cervantes Prize in 2008. His novel Últimas tardes con Teresa (Last Afternoons with Teresa, 1966), which was awarded the “Biblioteca Breve” Prize, introduced a narrative universe that has always been present in his literary production: Barcelona after the Civil War and the cultural gap between the Catalan upper class and immigrants from other parts of Spain. Si te dicen que caí (If They Tell You I Fell, 1973), which is considered the great work of his mature production, was banned by Franco’s censors but was published in Mexico and awarded the country’s International Prize for the Novel in 1973. La muchacha de las bragas de oro (1978 – published in English as Golden Girl, 1981, Little Brown) received the Planeta Prize, while El embrujo de Shanghai (1993 – published in English as Shanghai Nights, 2006, Harvill Secker) was awarded the National Critics’ Prize and the European Prize for Literature. In 2000 he published Rabos de lagartija (published in English as Lizard Tails, 2004, Vintage Books), winner of the National Critics’ Prize and the National Prize for Fiction. His last novels were Canciones de amor en Lolita’s Club (Love Songs in Lolita’s Club - Lumen, 2005), Caligrafía de los sueños (The Calligraphy of Dreams – Lumen, 2011) Noticias felices en aviones de papel (2014, Lumen) and Esa puta tan distinguida (2016).

[Update: 4 February 2016]