Next Thursday, February 10, the Saló de Cent of the Barcelona City Council will be dressed up to honor the literary career of one of the most brilliant crime novel writers of recent times, the American Don Winslow, who will receive the XVII Pepe Carvalho Award within the framework of the BCNegra festival. This award was created as a tribute to the writer Manuel Vázquez Montalbán and his mythical character, detective Pepe Carvalho, who put Barcelona on the black literary map of Southern Europe.
Born in New York in 1953, Winslow was always a lover of books and narratives, but before he could dedicate himself to literature, he held various jobs such as cinema manager, private detective in Times Square, private safari guide in Kenya, or mountaineering guide in southwest China, combined with theater directing during summers in Oxford, England. It seems that it was during these travels that his first novel and first success, A Cool Breeze on the Underground ---published by Penguin Random House in Spanish as Un soplo de aire fresco---, was conceived, nominated for an Edgar Award, the award given by the Mystery Writers of America, and awarded a Maltese Falcon, the Japanese international literary prize for crime fiction.
But it wasn't until his next book, which had a film adaptation, The Death and Life of Bobby Z ---Muerte y vida de Bobby Z also from Penguin Random House---, that he was finally able to settle in California and dedicate himself fully to writing, not only books but also scripts for film and television, such as the series he wrote with his partner in crime Shane Salerno, or the big screen adaptation of Savages, directed by none other than Oliver Stone and with a stellar cast. He has even written the story that makes up the video game Ghost Recon: Wildlands.
Don Winslow is a chronicler of reality, a contemporary master of the crime novelThe jury of the award granted by the Barcelona City Council, formed this year by Anna Abella, Núria Cadenes, Rosa Ribas, Daniel Vázquez Sallés and Sergio Vila-Sanjuán, with Carlos Zanón as president, chose the American writer by majority, emphasizing his dual condition aschronicler of reality and contemporary master of the noir novel. As the jury's statement says, "he has built a monumental body of work to portray the world to us, whether by unfolding multi-generational sagas, often hard to read, essential, or with singular works that delve into reality to become an implacable literary punch."
Don Winslow's written work is extensive and of great literary weight. Since 1991, he has continuously produced significant titles, becoming one of the most widely read authors. He is even considered the great name in criminal narco-literature thanks to a direct style, full of meticulous details resulting from the deep and extensive investigations he conducts to support his works. He has even met with cartel leaders and personally experienced threats from some kingpins.
And there is no character in his novels who does not have their own voice, whether they are traffickers, junkies, or police officers, to tell us the reality of the gears of police and political corruption, drug cartels, their effects, dirty war, well-meaning hypocrisy..., and all in a direct, penetrating, and vivid way. He dispenses with filters and artifices with a style that demonstrates as much ambition as a desire to make an impact on readers.
"Winslow's ability to transform research and information into creative material, and to present in realistic fiction format, crudely, directly, masterfully, some of the structural flaws affecting Western societies" is another of the pillars named by the jury. "If I write about my time and about these issues, pretending makes no sense," Winslow points out directly.
Don Winslow: "If I write about my time and about these issues, pretending makes no sense"To the twenty titles he already has published, City on Fire will be added next April by Harper Collins publishing house, and which aims to be the first of a new trilogy, this time about the Irish and Italian crime syndicate in America during the 80s and 90s. And some very knowledgeable readers, like Stephen King, already point out that it is "magnificent."
If the reader doesn't know where to enter Don Winslow's universe, The Power of the Dog, published in Spanish by Harper Collins as El poder del Perro, is a title that works on its own, but also inaugurates the trilogy that describes without contemplation, the history of drug trafficking on the border between Mexico and the United States since the 70s of the 20th century, along with the multi-award-winning and considered book of the year by media such as The New York Times or The Guardian, The Cartel (El Cártel, Harper Collins) and The Border (La Frontera, Harper Collins). But it is impossible not to include in the list other novels such as The Winter of Frankie Machine (El invierno de Frankie Machine, Ediciones Martínez Roca), or the already mentioned Savages (Salvages, Ediciones Martínez Roca), A Cool Breeze on the Underground, The Death and Life of Bobby Z or the most recent Broken (Rotos, again from Harper Collins).
Don Winslow's relationship with the city of Barcelona goes back a long way, as the author has visited the city several times and has participated in some of the literary festivals held there. But undoubtedly, the addition of this Pepe Carvalho Award to his record, along with other awards such as the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger, the Raymond Chandler, the Los Angeles Times critics' award or the RBA Novel Award, will make his connection with Barcelona even closer.
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