The memory book Carmen Martín Gaite. A biographyby Professor José Teruel, has won the Comillas 2025 Prize, awarded by the Tusquets publishing house. The jury has especially valued the “painstaking reconstruction of the life of the narrator, essayist and woman of letters, one of the most important literary voices in the Spanish language of the 20th century,” and points out that the memoirs “brilliantly describe the social and “The literary work of a narrator who knew how to conquer several generations of readers, while at the same time evoking with exquisite sensitivity the tragedies that conditioned the personality of the author from Salamanca.” The book is published on March 12.
“José Teruel gives us clarifying keys to interpret a literary world of great psychological depth, which is illuminated by the wise handling of the very interesting correspondence, the countless personal notes of Martín Gaite and many unpublished texts. On the centenary of the writer’s birth, this masterful biography is destined to be the reference work in studies on her life and writing,” the jury’s ruling continues.
With his first short novel, The spaMartín Gaite won the Café Gijón Prize in 1955 and, three years later, his novel between curtains It would earn him the prestigious Nadal Prize. Thus began one of the most brilliant and interesting literary trajectories of recent literature in the Spanish language, in which, among other novels and stories, stand out: The Back Room, Variable Cloudiness, The Snow Queen o Little Red Riding Hood in Manhattanas well as the tests Amorous uses of eighteen in Spain, The never ending tale y Amorous uses of the Spanish postwar.
To compose this very complete biography, which will be an obligatory reference to know the life and work of Carmen Martín Gaite, José Teruel has been able to access an enormous amount of documentation, much of it unpublished or little known, composed of letters and abundant notebooks, notes and observations of all kinds from the author, as well as data provided by family and friends who knew her well.
This award, which has been awarded since 1988, was born with the intention of awakening interest in biographical, memorial and historical works in the Spanish-speaking public. The latest winners were Manuel Calderón for Until the last breath (2024), Ian Gibson y su A Carmen in Granada. Memoirs of a Dubliner (2023), Miguel Dalmau for Pasolini. The last prophet (2022), Miguel Ángel Villena by Berlanga. Life and cinema of an irreverent creator (2021), Yolanda Arencibia by Galdos. A biography (2020) or Javier Padilla for At the end of January (2019).