With a tragicomedy located in present-day Lima about longevity and the problems of the elderly
Gustavo Rodríguez (Lima 1968) is the winner of the Alfaguara novel prize, which won its twenty-sixth edition this Thursday. The author awarded it with ‘Cien guinea pigs’, which he presented under the pseudonym of Journalist and narrator. The Peruvian writer obtained by majority an award that is endowed with 175,000 dollars (about 162,000 euros), a sculpture by Martín Chirino and the simultaneous publication of the novel throughout the Spanish-speaking territory. The winning novel will hit bookstores on March 23. Rodríguez takes over from Chilean-Argentine writer Cristian Alarcón, winner last year with ‘El tercer paraíso’.
Rodríguez prevailed among the 706 manuscripts submitted to this call, of which 296 were sent from Spain, 112 from Argentina, 99 from Mexico, 81 from Colombia, 43 from the United States, 28 from Chile, 27 from Peru, and 20 from Uruguay.
After the restrictions due to the pandemic of previous years, the ruling of this XXVI edition was once again held in person at the Casino de Madrid. Claudia Piñeiro presided over a jury that was made up of the writer Juan Tallón, the journalist and writer Javier Rodríguez Marcos, the translator Carolina Orloff, the founder of the Letras Corsarias bookstore in Salamanca, Rafael Arias García, and the editorial director of Alfaguara, Pilar Reyes , with voice but no vote.
Alfaguara, a label founded in 1964 by Camilo José Cela and his brother Jorge, has been part of the Penguin Random House group since 2014 and has one of the richest and most varied literary catalogs in the Spanish language. The first edition of its award was held in 1965. More than three decades later, in 1998, it was relaunched by the journalist and writer Juan Cruz, Alfaguara’s literary director between 1992 and 1998. In this last stage, the Alfaguara has played a role crucial in the dissemination of literature in the Spanish language: almost three million readers have enjoyed the winning works. Its simultaneous edition in Spain, Latin America and the United States is, according to its organizers, “a tribute to a common language for more than five hundred and fifty million readers.”
Among its winners are Cervantes prizes such as the Mexican Elena Poniatowska and the Nicaraguan Sergio Ramírez, as well as narrators from both shores of our language, such as Guillermo Arriaga, Ray Loriga, Jorge Volpi, José Ovejero, Santiago Roncagliolo, Andrés Neuman, Laura Restrepo, Tomás Eloy Martínez, Clara Sánchez or Manuel Vicent.
Since its foundation, the Alfaguara Prize jury has been chaired by prestigious narrators such as Carlos Fuentes, Eduardo Mendoza, Alfredo Bryce Echenique, Antonio Muñoz Molina, Jorge Semprún, Luis Mateo Díez, José Saramago, José Manuel Caballero Bonald, Ángeles Mastretta, Mario Vargas Llosa, Sergio Ramírez, Luis Goytisolo, Manuel Vicent, Bernardo Atxaga, Rosa Montero, Manuel Rivas, Laura Restrepo, Javier Cercas, Carme Riera, Elena Poniatowska, Fernando Savater, Juan José Millás, Juan Villoro and Héctor Abad Faciolince.
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