The Barcelona City Council has awarded the 2017 Pepe Carvalho Prize to Dennis Lehane! More details after the jump:
Named for the protagonist of a series of novels by Manuel Vázquez Montalbán, the Pepe Carvalho Prize is awarded each year in recognition of prestigious national and international crime writers. Past winners of the Prize include Ian Rankin, Michael Connelly, and P.D. James.
This year, the jury unanimously voted to recognize the breadth and diversity of Lehane’s work, saying: “Dennis Lehane, through his characters Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro, as well in his other novels and stories, dissects and examines the behavior of complex American society today. They might be in Dorchester or Boston, but the streets of Dennis Lehane are also our streets, our neighborhoods, and our cities. Through Dennis Lehane’s writing, as also happens with Manuel Vázquez Montalbán, we know our communities better, thanks to his storytelling ability and his mastery of the word.”
The Pepe Carvalho Prize will be presented as part of the next BCNegra Literary Festival, which will take place in Barcelona early next year. Congratulations to Dennis!