Overview
- Uclés submitted the manuscript under the pseudonym Oriol Arce after repeatedly attempting the Nadal in previous years.
- Set over 24 hours in postwar Barcelona, the novel imagines a citywide blackout tied to a young Carmen Laforet and a collective effort to restore the light through the arts.
- Historical and cultural figures including Mercè Rodoreda, Julio Cortázar, Freddie Mercury, Antoni Gaudí and Simone Weil converge across eras in the narrative.
- The prize was decided by Víctor del Árbol, Juan Luis Arsuaga, Inés Martín Rodrigo, Care Santos and Emili Rosales from a field of 1,207 submissions with five finalists.
- The win follows Uclés’s breakout with La península de las casas vacías, which sold more than 260,000 copies, as he shifts this new release to Destino.