Juan Marsé

He worked as an apprentice in a jeweler´s shop from 1946 to 1960. He began publishing his writings in the Insula magazine when he was fourteen. Describing himself as a “worker-writer”, he published his first novel, Encerrados con un solo juguete, in 1960. Along with his novel writing Marsé has written for films, advertisements, and magazines. 

He has been awarded the Biblioteca Breve prize in 1965 for Últimas tardes con Teresa (Last Evenings with Teresa), the Planeta Prize in 1978, the International Novel Prize, the European Literature Prize in 1994, the Ateneo de Sevilla Prize for El amante billingue (The Bilingual Lover), the Critic Prize and Aristeion Prize for El embrujo de Shanghai (The Shanghai Spell), the Juan Rulfo Prize of Latin American and Carribean Literature in 1997, and the National Prize for Literature in 2001.

Juan Marsé lived in Barcelona and was married to Joaquina Hoyas. He last published Rabos de Lagartija (Lizards’ Tails) in 2001. Marsé died in July 2020 at age 87.