The jury of the 76th edition of the Nadal Prize formed by Alicia Giménez Bartlett, Care Santos, Lorenzo Silva, Andrés Trapiello and Emili Rosales, yesterday granted the award for the novel The map of affections of the writer Ana Merino. The verdict was made public yesterday in the traditional literary evening at the Palace hotel in Barcelona.
A novel with as many protagonists as there are ways to relate and feel affection such as love, in all its manifestations, loss, revenge, disappointment or betrayal.
The story starts with the secret relationship that a school teacher has in a small rural community. From here, we will enter the daily mysteries of its inhabitants. Their lives, chained as emotional episodes, will cross over two decades between the United States and Spain.
The map of affections pursues the trail of the hidden stories of places, of chance, of strange events, of unexplained crimes, of absences and family tensions. A place where only thanks to kindness will it be possible to continue living. The book will be in bookstores on February 4, 2020.
Ana Merino, (Madrid 1971) is a writer who has been living in the United States for twenty-four years. Professor in creative writing in Spanish and cultural studies at the University of Iowa, in 2011 he founded the MFA of Creative Writing in Spanish, which he directed until December 2018. He has published nine poems, including Preparations for a trip awarded the Prize Adonáis de Poesía in 1994, and is the author of several plays premiered in Zurich and Iowa. She has pioneered the development of the academic training of comics in the university field of American Hispanic studies and has curated four exhibitions and written various essays specialized. He has been an opinion columnist for The country, member of the Executive Committee of the International Comic Art Forum (ICAF), of the Steering Committee of the Center for Cartoon Studies (CCS), of the Directing Council of Iowa City Unesco City of Literature and is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the Riverside Theater from the city of Iowa. The map of affections It is his first novel.
