Marcos Giralt Torrente wins the Critics' Award for 'The Illusionists'

The Madrid-born writer Marcos Giralt Torrente (Madrid, 1968) is the winner of the Critics' Award for 'Los ilusionistas'. It is considered the best narrative book published in 2025 by the Spanish Association of Literary Critics, which made the decision this Saturday in the town of Morille in Salamanca during the 70th edition of the awards, the only one that recognizes works in the four official languages of the State. The awards carry no financial prize but hold great prestige.

Pablo García Casado won for the best poetry book in Spanish. Fernando Castro Paredes and Lorena Souto were the awardees in Galician; Amadeu Fabregat and Sebastià Alzamora in Catalan, and Eider Rodríguez and Ane Zubeldia in Basque. The best foreign language book, according to the critics, is 'The Gardener and Death' by Bulgarian Gueorgui Gospodinov.

In 'Los ilusionistas' (Anagrama), its author "reflects with extraordinary clarity the complex family universe" and "reveals his personal maturity and as a creator," according to the jury's verdict. The grandson of Gonzalo Torrente Ballester narrates how his maternal grandparents, Gonzalo Torrente Ballester and Josefina Malvido, met in the summer of 1931 in a coastal village in Galicia. She was of peasant origin and he was an emerging writer absorbed in literature.

Married life was incompatible with his ambition, and the woman submits so that the writer can achieve his dream. It thus reflects on affections, memory, the bonds of inheritance, and writing itself.

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Giralt Torrente's book had been a finalist for the AENA one million euro prize, decided this same week in favor of Argentine writer Samanta Schweblin, and had also won the Francisco Umbral Award.

Giralt Torrente is the author of novels such as 'Tiempo de vida' - National Narrative Award -, 'Paris', and 'The Happy Beings'. Also, of short story collections like 'Changing Skin', and memoir books like 'Someday I Will Be Remembered'.

Pablo García Casado is the author of 'Each One is Many People' (Visor), deserving the poetry award. He debuted with 'The Outskirts' (1997) to become a reference for new generations "for his overcoming of the border between poetry and prose and his accurate use of urban, everyday, and pop elements," according to the verdict.

Other Languages

In Basque narrative, 'Dena zulo bera zen', (Everything Was the Same Hole) by Eider Rodríguez, six stories of great breadth, "illuminate the intimate cracks of everyday life". 'Kontra' (Susa), by Ane Zubeldia, combines in this winning poetry book formal experimentation and sensory strength.

'L'anell del nibelung' (Proa), by Amadeu Fabregat (Torreblanca, 1948), deserved the narrative award in Catalan. It marks the author's return to narrative after more than four decades of silence. The poetry award went to 'Sala Augusta followed by Mother Tongue' (Proa), by Sebastià Alzamora (Llucmajor, 1972), verses about memory.

'O lanzador de coitelos' (Galaxia), by Fernando Castro Paredes, earned the narrative award in Galician with a 'thriller' that is delicious and tough at the same time. 'Exuvia e saliva', (Chan da Pólvora), by Lorena Souto, explores in her winning verses personal identity and what it means to inhabit a rural area in constant change.

Future Nobel?

'The Gardener and Death' (Impedimenta), by Gueorgui Gospodinov (Yambol, 1968), is a book about loss, mourning, memory, family, and survival through children. With an intimate language, sometimes lyrical and full of imagery, Gospodinov addresses the darkest aspects of the human condition without falling into despair.

Author of fifteen books of poetry, stories, plays, essays, and novels as well as screenplays, Gospodinov is the most recognized Bulgarian writer and is mentioned as a future Nobel Prize in Literature. In Spanish, his works 'About the Theft of Stories and Other Tales' and the novels: 'Natural Novel', 'Physics of Sorrow', 'The Tempestlites', and 'The Gardener and Death' have been published.

The independent jury of these awards in this edition consisted of 21 literary critics. It is the only award given in the four official languages of the State; in Spanish, since 1956; in Catalan, since 1971, when it was won by Salvador Espriu, followed by Josep Pla, Mercè Rodoreda, or Joan Brossa. Awarded in Galician and Basque starting in 1976, it was won by Álvaro Cunqueiro, José Méndez Ferrín, Manuel Rivas, Ramón Saizarbitoria, Bernardo Atxaga, or Miren Agur Meabe. Since 2021, it also awards the best foreign language book translated into any of these languages.

Prelude to Nobels and Cervantes

The award turned seventy in Morille, a village in Salamanca with 221 inhabitants and a wide range of cultural and artistic activities. It was first decided on April 8, 1956, in Zaragoza. A pioneer jury of critics chaired by Francisco Ynduráin chose 'La catira', a novel by Camilo José Cela, future Nobel Prize in Literature, as the best book. The following year, Rafael Sánchez Ferlosio - future Cervantes - won with 'El Jarama' in narrative and Gabriel Celaya in poetry with 'From Clear to Clear'. Mario Vargas Llosa was the first Latin American author to win the award with 'The City and the Dogs', in 1964, nearly half a century before winning the Nobel in 2010.

Among the narrators awarded are Ana María Matute, Miguel Delibes, Gonzalo Torrente Ballester, Cristina Fernández Cubas, Eduardo Mendoza, Antonio Muñoz Molina, Enrique Vila-Matas, Luis Landero, Juan Marsé, Luis Mateo Díez, Javier Marías, Rafael Chirbes, or Fernando Aramburu.

There is another Nobel, Vicente Aleixandre, among the winning poets: Octavio Paz, Blas de Otero, José Hierro, José Manuel Caballero Bonald, José Ángel Valente, Claudio Rodríguez, Tomás Segovia, María Victoria Atencia, Julia Uceda, Antonio Colinas, Guillermo Carnero, Antonio Carvajal, Chantal Maillard or Luis García Montero.

The novel 'Hamnet', by Maggie O´Farrell, inaugurated in 2021 the award for the best foreign fiction published in Spain. It was followed by Mircea Cartarescu, Hernán Díaz, and Paul Auster, expanding this roster of foreign authors deserving of the Critics' Award.