Juan Benet

At the start of the Spanish Civil War, his father was executed by a firing squad in Republican held Madrid, and together with his family he left for San Sebastián to find refuge with relatives.

He frequented the discussion group at Café Gijón, in Madrid, where he met the man who would become his best friend, Luis Martín Santos, among other authors of that time.

In 1953, still a student, he started an engineering internship in Finland and published his first play, Max, in which one can see the beginnings of a singular literary style that distances itself from the popular themes of Spanish literature of that era.

There were already those calling his work "incorrect literature," and only a few contemporary authors, such as Pere Gimferrer, who believed that a great narrative writer had been born.

He was a finalist for the Planeta Prize in 1980 with his work El aire de un crimen, losing to Volaverunt by Antonio Larreta.