Spanish Writer Eduardo Mendoza Granted the 2016 Cervantes Prize

MADRID – Spanish writer Eduardo Mendoza was on Wednesday awarded this year’s Miguel de Cervantes Prize, a prestigious literary recognition of outstanding achievements in the Spanish language.

The jury-selected winner was announced by the Spanish Minister of Education, Culture and Sport, Iñigo Mendez de Vigo, during a press conference in Madrid.

According to the jury, Mendoza forged a new narrative path with his 1975 “The Truth About the Savolta Case,” a crime novel set in post World War I Barcelona, narrated through court testimonies, character memories and judicial and police documents.

President of the jury Pedro Alvarez de Miranda said Mendoza was a pure novelist and “Savolta” was a milestone in Spanish literature.

He highlighted the writer’s use of humor as a key ingredient in literature, which is evident in works like “No Word from Gurb,” which follows an alien wandering around Barcelona in the early 1990s trying to find his friend.

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