The writer Rodrigo Blanco Calderón (Caracas, 1981) won the Venezuelan 'Premio de la Crítica Ficción Breve' for his novel The Night. The book, published by Editorial Madera Fina and by Alfaguara, has the political and social crisis in Venezuela as background.
The title 'The Night' alludes to the constant blackouts of the city of Caracas in whose night, doubly dark, danger and violence coexist with the dreams and ambitions of four characters: a psychiatrist, an obsessive writer, a publicist awarded by a story incomprehensible and a woman locked in a stormy relationship.
The jury highlighted "its impeccable manufacture and its elaborate structure, as well as an effective psychological construction of the characters."
The prize is biennial and The Night was chosen unanimously among a number of works published between 2016 and 2017.
Rodrigo Blanco Calderón was the youngest author to be part of the prestigious List of Bogotá 39. He has a degree in Literature and Literary Studies from the Central University of Venezuela (UCV). He has published the short-stories books Una larga fila de hombres (2005), Los invencibles (2007), Las rayas (2011) and Los terneros (2018).
The Night has been translated into French (Gallimard), Dutch (De Bezige Bij) and Czech (Odeon, Euromedia) and has won the Rive Gauche à Paris 2016 prize in the category of foreign novel.