The writer Álvaro Pombo (Santander, 1939) has been awarded the Cervantes Prize by the Ministry of Culture, considered the most important literary award in the Spanish language, endowed with 125,000 euros. Just before seven in the evening, the Minister of Culture, Ernest Urtasun, announced the jury's decision, which in this 49th edition chose the author for "his extraordinary creative personality, his unique lyricism, and his original narrative," as stated by the minister, who continued explaining that the writer "enjoys a remarkable level as a poet and essayist, in addition to being one of the great novelists of our language, who explores the human condition from the affective perspectives of deep and conflicting feelings."
"I won't deny that I wanted this award, but I truly didn't expect it at all," exclaims Pombo over the phone just before confessing that he is about to go to the dentist. "When the minister told me that I had been awarded, I was very happy. The truth is, I wasn't even thinking about it, and if I did think about it, I thought it would go to any of the other authors that were being talked about, from here or from Hispanic America, who are all magnificent, like Leonardo Padura," he emphasizes.
His reaction, as he recalls for EL MUNDO, was direct and spontaneous, as oral and popular as many of his pages: "'What a joy you've given me, minister,' is what I told him, laughing. And it's true, I've been very sincere," acknowledges the writer, complaining, as of late, about the ailments of old age. "I'm just going now to have my teeth checked because I'm old, pretty much just for a tune-up."
For this same book, he received the Madrid Critics' Award a few days ago. "In his creations, he shows the world through the construction of a language in which distortions of reality are reflected under the guise of irony and humor," continued the minister, before concluding that Pombo "has created what defines great writers: a unique, enduring, and essential world that moves and touches."
His latest novel, 'El exclaustrado,' published last September, tells the story of Juan Cabrera, a monk with a great religious vocation who after a futile incident with some novices experiences a crisis of faith and leaves the monastery, only to seclude himself among mountains of theology books in an apartment in the center of Madrid. Until the world, in the form of an innocent nephew, a former rival who hates him, and a simple woman trapped in a relationship with both, disrupts his orderly and silent reality.
In a conversation about this book with this newspaper, the writer stated: "I wouldn't say it's a self-portrait, I hope not, but it does express things that concern me. For example, I am a very withdrawn person, increasingly so due to my delicate situation, and I see very few people. And I wanted to warn those who read me that living solely through books is unbearably sad."
This latest novel, which masterfully delves into the mysteries of faith, love, and revenge, joins his long series of stories featuring elaborate characters, incisive emotions, and moral (or immoral) atmospheric cities that function as scratches on the life of a Pombo, who, although already the owner of an unmistakable style, considers himself a mere vicar of reality. "I'm not a sociologist, but a simple narrator. One has to reach, like me, the age of 80-something to be a full observer of life. And despite the ailments, it's worth it," he affirmed a few weeks ago.
A graduate in Philosophy from the University of Madrid, Pombo is a Bachelor of Arts from Birberk College in London. Between 1966 and 1977, he worked at a bank in London, where he became interested in the English literary tradition, also early on he cultivated poetry in works like Protocolos (1973), Variaciones (1977), or Hacia una constitución poética del año en curso (1980). He has been a member of the Royal Spanish Academy since 2004, occupying seat "j", where he delivered his inaugural speech titled Verosimilitud y verdad. His work has been translated into multiple languages: German, French, Dutch, Greek, English, Italian, Norwegian, and Portuguese.
Active in politics in the now-defunct party Union, Progress, and Democracy (UPyD), Pombo ran for the Senate twice, in 2008 and 2011, but was never elected. For years, he has been critical of an activity that he believes "makes one vain, which is not good for a writer." A few weeks ago, he criticized the lack of responsibility in current politics. "Politicians have to get it right, because if not, they mess things up. I understand that it's terrifying to be, for example, responsible for the food of Spanish children, having to balance price reductions and taxes so that people don't die of hunger, but it's their responsibility."
In 2025, Anagrama, the writer's publishing house, plans to publish a biography by the professor, historian, and collaborator of Diario Montañés, Mario Crespo, born out of the more than 20 years of friendship that bind him to Pombo. "It is a long-term project that will presumably be titled El mundo de Álvaro Pombo. More than a conventional, chronological biography, it will be thematic and will delve into the main themes of his work: childhood, moral issues, homosexuality, the relationship with God and religiosity...," shares Crespo, who adds that it will include "many confidences and keys, such as, for example, his parents' divorce and other topics that only arise in long conversations among friends."
Pombo, who emerged victorious in this Cervantes Prize over names that had been circulating for several days, such as the Spanish Enrique Vila-Matas, the Mexican Margo Glantz, the Nicaraguan Gioconda Belli, the Argentine César Aira, or the Chilean Raúl Zurita;succeeds in the list of winners of the greatest award in our language another Spaniard, the Leonese novelist Luis Mateo Díez, recognized last year by the jury as "one of the great storytellers of the Spanish language, heir to the Cervantine spirit and creator of imaginary worlds and territories." As is tradition, the award will be presented on April 23, 2025, World Book Day and the anniversary of Miguel de Cervantes' death, in the traditional award ceremony held at the auditorium of the University of Alcalá (Madrid).