The Nadal distinguishes Ana Merino and the Pla, Laia Aguilar - La Provincia

If he Planet Award the last edition did not contemplate women, this time the publishing giant, which also grants the Nadal and the Pla, seems to want to compensate for that absence. As he Nadal, with the Madrid writer Ana Merino, like the Pla, with the Barcelona Laia Aguilar, They pointed to female authorship on the traditional night of Kings Day, this Monday. These are emotional and coral stories that, each in their own way, have placed the magnifying glass of their stories in front of a precise micro-universe: an American community, in the case of Merino, and the reunion of a group of friends, in what Regarding Aguilar. The awards are endowed with 18,000 euros for Nadal, and 6,000 for Pla.

The political background that in recent times usually accompanies the awarding of the awards of the Planet field has also had its novelties, such as the presence of the Minister of Culture of the Generalitat, Mariàngela Vilallonga, a position that in the last two editions caused cancellation with Laura Borràs . Who has not missed the appointment has been the mayor of Barcelona, ​​Ada Colau.

The night of Nadal 2020, the prize also it was stained with commemorative memory as happened last year, on the 75th anniversary of what is the oldest award of Spanish letters. On this occasion he was reminded Miguel Delibes, the fundamental author of the Destination label that publishes the award, which will be celebrated next centenary next August. To evoke the author of 'The Holy Innocents' and 'Five hours with Mario' who was the best portraitist in rural Castilla depopulated and absorbed in his empty nature, nobody better than Sergio del Molino, an author who confesses in his same path narrative and that he dedicated a few words as a kick off the acts dedicated to Delibes during this year. In fact, the Nadal Prize, the Nadal of the recovery of Spanish literature of the second half of the 20th century, with names such as Carmen Laforet, Carmen Martín Gaite, Álvaro Cunqueiro, Rafael Sánchez Ferlosio or Ana María Matute, owes much to a Delibes of 28 years that in 1948 became known thanks to his first work, 'The shadow of the cypress is elongated'.

'Map of affections'

'Map of the affections', the winning work of the poet and playwright Ana Merino (Madrid, 1971), also represents her debut in the novel. To date, the author had stood out as a comic book specialist and theorist and especially for her university work as a professor at the University of Iowa, where she teaches the prestigious and historical master of writing in English to which she added as a founder a master in Castilian who directed between 2011 and 2018. His novel is currently in a rural community of United States (although there is also some incursion in Spain) in which a series of emotional episodes are located that trace what the title promises: a geography of love feelings in all their breadth, from love and infidelity, through loss and disappointment, through a series of stories that intersect and chain. An idea flies over the work and is that only thanks to goodness can you continue to live, an emotional tension that relates you in intentions - despite being very different - to the novels of your partner, Manuel Vilas.

'Pluja d'estels'

A starting point that usually works well dramatically as is the reunion of a group of friends in the quarantine, serves Laia Aguilar (Barcelona, ​​1976) to start his novel 'Pluja d'estels'. Parallel to her experience as a screenwriter for T.V. series, among which 'El cor de la ciutat', 'Ventdelplà', 'Infidels' or 'Merlí', wrote two novels with a youth theme such as 'Wolfgang', starring a gifted child, with which he won the Carlemany prize for the promotion of reading and 'Juno', which portrays the loneliness of a supervised teenager.

'Pluja d'estels' It is situated in Cap de Creus, the place where some old friends decide to meet with the excuse of contemplating the astronomical phenomenon, although what really worries them all is an episode that happened five years ago, an event that they have not wanted to face in these past years but emerge will mean a crisis.

The jury of the Nadal is formed by Alicia Giménez Bartlett, Care Santos, Lorenzo Silva, Andrés Trapiello and Emili Rosales. In the case of the Pla, it is made up of Rosa Cabré, Antoni Pladevall, Genís Sinca, Àlex Susanna and Glòria Gasch.