We are thrilled to announce that Terra Alta (Even the Darkest Night), by Javier Cercas and translated into English by Anne McLean, has been awarded the 2023 Dagger for Crime Fiction in Translation Prize.
The ten Daggers conferred annually by the CWA are regarded by the publishing world as the most important British awards for crime writing. This prize goes to crime novels translated into English for publication in the UK during 2022.
Terra Alta is “the first exemplary volume in a new crime trilogy by a leading Spanish literary author, with complex characters, issues and a striking sense of place”, in the words of the Jury. It has been published in English by MacLehose (Quercus) in the UK, and by Alfred A. Knopf in the USA.
This novel by Javier Cercas won the Planeta Prize in Spain in 2019 and is due to be translated into more than 20 different languages.
The second book in the series, Independencia (Prey for the Shadow), also translated by Anne McLean, has just come out now in July 2023 in the UK and the USA.
What the press had to say about Terra Alta:
"Irresistible, a wonderful commingling of scrupulous realism and scandalous invention...the language here — furious, precise... It’s hard not to want to see where life, and Terra Alta, will take him next." Gareth Risk, New York Times
“Striking” – Barry Forshaw, Financial Times
"Disturbing." Lire
“… a fictional reflection which interweaves the dark side of the soul and the persistence of memory. The work of a goldsmith, an all-round success.” Olivier Mony, Sudouest
“This fierce story is about life and literature, and about what the latter can do to the former if it is brave and stripped-back. From the beginning to the end, this is a tense whodunit.” Lilian Neuman, Culturas, La Vanguardia
"Irresistible, a wonderful commingling of scrupulous realism and scandalous invention...the language here — furious, precise...It’s hard not to want to see where life, and Terra Alta, will take him next." Gareth Risk, New York Times
“Striking” – Barry Forshaw, Financial Times
"Troublant." Lire
"...une réflexion romanesque où se mêlent la noirceur des âmes et la persistance du souvenir. Un travail d’orfèvre, parfaitement réussi." Olivier Mony, Sudouest
“This fierce story is about life and literature, and about what the latter can do to the former if it is brave and stripped-back. From the beginning to the end, this is a tense whodunit.” Lilian Neuman, Culturas, La Vanguardia