Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Planeta book prize 2012

Last night, the highest doted prize in literature after the Nobel, in the 61st edition of the Planeta book prize, was awarded to Lorenzo Silva (Madrid, 1966) for his novel La marca del meridiano ["The meridian's mark"; 600.000 EUR]; runner up was Mara Torres with La vida imaginaria ["The imaginary life"; 120.000 EUR].

Silva is best-known as author of the crime novel saga starring the "civilian guards" Bevilacqua and Chamorro. He started his literary career in 1995 with Noviembre sin violetas ["November without violets"], and in 2000 he received the Nadal book prize for El alquimista impaciente ["The impatient alquimist"]. Silva who is from Madrid and married to a Catalan, gave thanks for the prize with a short speech in Catalan and expressed his wish that there was never any more division between his beloved Madrid and his beloved Barcelona than the meridian, an imaginary line.
Apart from crime novels he also authored other works of fiction and non-fiction such as tales, articles, poetry and literary and historical essays. Up to the year 2000 he (also) worked as auditor, tax consultant, and lawyer, but from age 14 he has written.

The "Bevilacqua series" so far consists of:
El lejano país de los estanques ["The far-away ponds' country"],
El alquimista impaciente ["The impatient alquimist"],
Nadie vale más que otro. Cuatro asuntos de Bevilacqua ["Nobody's worth more than somebody else. Four Bevilacqua cases"],
La reina sin espejo ["The mirror-less queen"], and
La estrategia del agua ["The water strategy"].

Silva is considered an eminence in the field of crime novels as he is also the organizer of the crime novel festival Madrid Getafe Negro, and co-comissioner of the Santiago Negro festival in Santiago de Chile.

La Vanguardia newspaper, in which was published all of the above information, also highlights Silva's activities on Twitter and as a blogger of Los trabajos y los días ["The works and the days"], dedicated to his readers.

The Wikipedia has an article on Lorenzo Silva, but none of his works has been translated into English (so far).




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