We mourn the loss of the writer Luis Goytisolo, who has passed away at the age of 91. With his first novel, Las afueras (1958), written when he was just 23, he won the prestigious Biblioteca Breve Prize and quickly became a leading figure in post-war literature. Between the 1960s and the 1980s, he devoted himself to writing his magnum opus, Antagonía, an ambitious tetralogy that was immediately hailed as one of the undisputed masterpieces of the Spanish-language novel. Recently reissued by the publisher Anagrama, it recounts the life of Raúl Ferrer, a young man from Barcelona’s bourgeoisie, from the moment he decides to devote his life to writing. Through him, Goytisolo undertakes a radical and fascinating exploration of the mystery of literary creation.
Luis Goytisolo was a member of the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) and a regular contributor to various newspapers, including El País. Among other honours, he received the National Prize for Spanish Literature, the Anagrama Essay Prize (for Naturaleza de la novela) and the Carlos Fuentes International Prize awarded by the Mexican Government’s Ministry of Culture.
He was the younger brother of the poet José Agustín and the novelist and intellectual Juan Goytisolo. Each, in their own brilliant and unmistakable way, contributed to the Goytisolo name leaving a profound mark on Spanish poetry and fiction in the second half of the 20th century.