Spain’s Nadal Prize Goes to Casavella

by Aída Bardales -- Críticas, 1/15/2008

The 2008 Premio Nadal, awarded by Ediciones Destino (Grupo Planeta), was presented on Sunday, January 6 to Spanish author and journalist Francisco Casavella (b. 1963) for Lo que sé de vampiros (“What I Know of Vampires”), which takes place during the 18th century when the Jesuits were expelled from Spain. The prize,  the oldest (est. 1944), is considered the most prestigious literary award in Spain. Casavella will receive €18,000 (approximately US$26,620) and the publication of the novel by Destino.

Lo que sé de vampiros centers on aristocrat Martín de Viloalle, who decides to accompany the Jesuits as they are exiled from Spain in 1767. “It is a tragicomedy, my way of looking at the world,” Casavella said of his winning novel, adding that in it he reflects on “the pillars of human life: the meaning of identity, the borders of freedom, and how to bear the weight of history.” Aside from traveling through most of Europe with the Jesuits, Casavella’s Viloalle later joins an intellectual yet marginal society that goes from one imperial court to the next to delight the aristocracy’s intellectual, sexual, and other desires.

Sevillian journalist Eva Díaz’s (b. 1971) El club de la memoria (“The Memory Club”) was named a finalist. The historical novel is based on several diaries belonging to the Misiones Pedagógicas (Educational Missions, one of the Second Republic’s socialist programs) the author found and utilized in order to “recover a courageous and memorable episode en a memoricidal country.” In the novel, a historian finds the diary of one of the members of the Club de la Memoria, a group of young writers that participated in the Educational Missions.

The winning works were selected from among 270 submissions. The jury was comprised of a Destino editor and notable authors, including Felipe Benítez Reyes, last year’s Premio Nadal winner.