Latin American Herald Tribune

Colombia’s Ospina Wins Prestigious Venezuelan Novel Prize

Jun 05 -- Colombian writer William Ospina was awarded the Romulo Gallegos International Novel Prize on Thursday for “El pais de la canela” (The Country of the Cinnamon), beating out 274 other works from a score of countries.

5 de junio de 2009

In reading the jury’s verdict, reached unanimously, Argentine writer Graciela Maturo hailed the high quality of the entries and said of the winning novel – published by Norma – that “it is an interpretive reading of the first expeditions the Europeans made in the (hemisphere), with a strong orientation toward the present.”

Ospina told Efe Wednesday in presenting the novel at the Madrid Book Fair that it examines the Conquest of New World from the perspective of the mestizo son of a Spanish colonizer and Indian mother, adding that his purpose was to recover “the consciousness of the indigenous people regarding that cultural clash.”
 
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