Miguel Delibes, with 26 years, was on duty in the drafting of The North of Castilla, when he learned that he had won the Nadal prize, organised by the label Destination. It was the 6 of January of 1948, the fourth call of the award, and all winners were: the young writer who, with the novel which I had finished just the previous summer, the shadow of The cypress is elongated, it has become one of the authors milestones of Spanish literature of postwar period, the award, because it solidified a track record, which over the years was exemplary, and, above all, the publishing house, which, with time, came to concentrate on the writer vallisoletano up to 25% of its turnover. Under the shadow of the centenary of the birth of Delibes, the Nadal prize, dean of the that are granted in Spain, reaches this Monday night its 76th edition in the traditional gala literary in the Hotel Palace of Barcelona, where you also will fail the 52nd Josep Pla prize for narrative in Catalan.

Madrid (77) and Barcelona (20) are the cities from where come most of the 351 works presented this year to Nadal, a figure that maintains a slight upward trend in the last three years (343 in the last edition and 322, in 2018). It has also become a constant in recent times the remarkable presence of the novel as a genre star, or as the substrate of the frame (the last year the same as what reflected the winning play, crimes of Alice, the argentine Guillermo Martínez), as well as the predominance of pseudonyms: three of the five finalists this year, who aspire to 18,000 euros of prize money, they compete under that format. It is the same ratio as that of Josep Pla, whose 6,000 euros choose in the present edition 38 works, 20% more than last year (32), and eight more than in 2018 (30).

the dinner is expected to attend this year, the minister of Culture of the Generalitat, Mariàngela Vilallonga, and the mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau, a scope of the Nadal prize and Pla that in the last two editions has lived absences and institutional moments of discomfort reflection of the socio-political situation of Catalonia, like the one that starred in last year, then-candidate for mayor of Barcelona with the support of the Citizens, Manuel Valls, that left the dinner before time showing of how strong your disagreement by “demagoguery” of the writer Marc Artigau that, after being declared the winner of the Pla with The vigília, made reference in his speech of thanks to the political Catalan prisoners.