His candidacy was the only one presented and was endorsed by Mario Vargas Llosa, Clara Sánchez and Pedro Álvarez de Miranda, but the election of Javier Cercas (Ibahernando, Cáceres, 62 years old) as a member of the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) had to be voted on this Thursday and obtain an absolute majority. This is what finally happened, so the author of Soldiers of Salamis He will occupy the R chair of the institution, which became vacant in 2022 after the death of the writer Javier Marías. From today, Javier Cercas joins the group that, as the old motto of the academy said, “cleans, fixes and gives splendor” to the Spanish language.
After the vote in favor of Javier Cercas, the seat occupied by Francisco Rico, who died last April, is still vacant, since, according to the tradition of the institution, the procedures to occupy it do not start until at least six months after the death. of an academic. In the case of Javier Marías, almost two years have passed and Cercas still has two more to deliver his entrance speech into the RAE.
The work of the RAE will not be foreign to the new member. A philologist by training, Cercas combined his work as a writer and columnist for years with teaching as a professor of Spanish literature at the University of Girona. He debuted in the late eighties of the 20th century with the novel The mobile (1987), but success came in the newly released new century, in 2001, with Soldiers of Salamis, a book of which he sold nearly a million copies, which was translated into dozens of languages and with which he delved into a real episode of the Spanish Civil War: the failed execution of the Falangist poet Rafael Sánchez-Mazas. That book, which promoted both autofiction and the recovery of historical memory in Spain, definitely boosted his budding career and since its appearance it has been included in countless lists of the best books of this century.
Cercas continued to explore these literary games with non-fiction, which have resulted in some of his most celebrated books, such as Anatomy of a moment (2010), The impostor (2014) either The shadow monarch (2017). But that border between reality and fiction has not been the only one that this author, a devoted reader of Cervantes, has explored: he has also published essays such as The blind spota series of three detective novels set against the backdrop of processes starring a mosso d’esquadra and various collections of articles such as Don’t be silent. Chronicles, essays and articles 2000-2022, published last year and where his columns published on Sundays in The weekly country.
He has also received several awards throughout his career. From the National Narrative by Anatomy of a moment (which x-rayed the failed coup d’état in Spain in 1981) to the Llibreter, the Terenci Moix or the Planeta (for Terra Alta in 2019). Other awards for his journalistic work (such as the Lara, the Francisco Cerecedo or the Mariano de Cavia) guarantee his commitment to current events and his ability to reflect on the present. He has also received international recognition, such as the Prix Ulysse, in France, or the Premio Internazionale del Salone del Libro di Torino, the Friuladria or the Sicilia, in Italy.
[Noticia de última hora. Habrá actualización en breve]
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