The Princess of Asturias Award for Literature has gone to the Spanish/Cuban novelist and journalist Leonardo Padura. There were 27 nominations from around the world for the prestigous award which has been won in the past by people of the stature of writer John Banville, Leonard Cohen and dramatist Arthur Miller.

The president of the jury, Dario Villanueva Prieto who is the director of the Spanish Academy outlined the reasons for the jury’s choice.

“The vast work of Leonardo Padura, which crosses all genres of prose, highlights a resource which characterizes his literary work and that is the interest in listening to people’s voices and lost stories from others,” he said.

Leonardo Padura, who was born in Havana is perhaps best known in the English speaking world for his quartet of detective novels – The Four Seasons featuring lieutenant Mario Conde.

He started his professional life as a journalist completing his first short story in 1983, he continued for another six years as a j