Julio Llamazares, a writer from León, has been awarded the 2026 National Narrative Prize for his novel * El viaje de mi padre* (My Father's Journey ), published by Alfaguara, which blends travelogue with the reconstruction of family history. The prize, awarded by the Ministry of Culture, comes with a cash award of 30.000 euros.
The work delves into the experiences of his father, Nemesio, during the Spanish Civil War , in the winter of 1937, and takes the Battle of Teruel as one of its central themes. The jury highlighted the text's profound depth of memory and humanity , as well as its ability to unite landscape, history, and literature.
An award that recognizes a career
The decision came from a jury convened by the Ministry of Culture, chaired by MarÃa José Gálvez Salvador , Director General of Books, Comics, and Reading. In its report, the committee highlighted that Llamazares evokes the personal without losing sight of the historical dimension and that geographical displacements shaped the identity of several generations.
Last year, the prize was awarded to Paco Cerdà for another work related to the Spanish Civil War, and previous recipients include authors such as Marilar Aleixandre, Xesús Fraga, Juan Bonilla, Pilar Adón, Cristina Morales, Almudena Grandes , Fernando Aramburu, and Cristina Fernández Cubas. Llamazares thus joins a well-established list of recent Spanish narrative writers.
A father's journey, a generation's journey
In My Father's Journey , Llamazares reconstructs the itinerary of his father, mobilized on the rebel side and serving as a radio operator during the conflict. The narrative travels to locations such as Teruel and other points along the front lines, places the author already knew but now observes with a fresh perspective.
The author himself has explained that it is not just a book about the war, but also about its landscapes and its silences . The question that drives the text, he has said, is both simple and difficult: what would his father have thought during those days of cold, exhaustion, and danger?
Family memory becomes a way to delve into what wasn't heard in time . Llamazares has acknowledged that, like many people, it was only after his father's death that he understood he had let stories slip by that he could no longer hear firsthand.
A work between memory and landscape
The jury described the book as a journey of healing and a personal act of rebellion against oblivion and the lack of memory. In their view, the author transforms an individual experience into a reflection on the passage of time and the bonds between generations.
Llamazares' prose has been described as meticulous, understated, and poetically inspired , with landscapes and characters as the true protagonists. His approach offers no heroic narrative, but rather an honest exploration of the most human face of a conflict that marked several generations.
The book can also be read as a warning. The author argues that everyone loses wars except those who provoke and direct them, and maintains that remembering is a defense against violence . In his view, ignorance of the past fuels many of the current tensions in Spain and Europe.
An author of many registers
Born in Vegamián, León, in 1955 , Julio Llamazares has developed a career encompassing journalism, novels, poetry, chronicles, screenwriting, and travel writing. His popularity grew with * La lluvia amarilla* (The Yellow Rain ), published in 1988 and now considered a contemporary classic.
His novels include titles such as Different Ways of Looking at Water , Wolf Moon, Scenes from Silent Film, The Sky of Madrid, The Tears of Saint Lawrence, and Vagalume. His poetry collections include The Slowness of Oxen and Memory of Snow, and his essays include volumes such as In Babia, Nobody Listens, and Between Dog and Wolf.
His travel writing includes The River of Oblivion , Trás-os-Montes, Duero Notebook, The Stone Roses, Atlas of Imaginary Spain, Don Quixote's Journey, and The Roses of the South. He has also written chronicles such as The Burial of GenarÃn, short stories such as In the Middle of Nowhere and So Much Passion for Nothing, and the diary Extremaduran Spring.
A distinction with a contemporary interpretation
The award for *My Father's Journey* comes at a time when the debate on historical memory remains alive in Spain. The ruling emphasizes that the traces of the Civil War persist in the land and in families, and that literature can help us examine them without oversimplification or slogans.
The author has warned that in Spain and Europe there is a notable lack of historical memory and ignorance of the past , something which, in his view, contributes to the recurrence of situations of tension and violence. Therefore, he advocates for historical memory not as a nostalgic exercise, but as a civic tool.
With this award, Llamazares adds another chapter to a long and distinguished career, in which he has combined fiction, journalism, and travel . The prize doesn't change his approach to writing, but it does highlight a book that speaks of parents, children, absences, and landscapes that hold what was never meant to be told.
The award, granted by the Ministry of Culture and endowed with 30.000 euros, solidifies Julio Llamazares's position as one of the leading voices in contemporary Spanish literature. His prize-winning work, *El viaje de mi padre* (My Father's Journey), explores the memory of the Spanish Civil War through intimacy, landscape, and the question of what could have been but went unheard. The jury's decision also emphasizes a theme that runs throughout the book: looking back without heroic narratives can be a way to better understand the present and prevent oblivion from taking hold.