Alberto Méndez (August 27, 1941 – December 30, 2004) was a Spanish novelist. He graduated from the

Universidad Complutense de Madrid The Complutense University of Madrid (, UCM; ) is a public research university located in Madrid. Founded in Alcalá in 1293 (before relocating to Madrid in 1836), it is one of the oldest operating universities in the world, and one of Spain's ...

, and worked in publishing. His novel ''Los girasoles ciegos'' won several awards, including the Sentenil Prize (2004), the Critics' Prize and the National Prize for Literature in 2005. It was translated into English by Nick Caistor under the title ''Blind Sunflowers''. It was also made into a film called '' The Blind Sunflowers'' (2008).

Biography

He was born and spent his childhood in Madrid, son of the translator and poet José Méndez Herrera. He studied baccalaureate in Rome (Italy) and graduated in Philosophy and Letters at the Complutense University of Madrid. He was affiliated in the Communist Party until 1982. He founded the publishing house Ciencia Nueva and collaborated in Montena and his distributor Les Punxes. In 2002 he was a finalist of the Max Aub International Story Award for one of the stories of The Blind Sunflowers. Thanks to '' Los girasoles ciegos'' he won in 2004 the 1st Setenil Award for the best book of stories of the year. He was awarded posthumous title with the Premio Nacional de Narrativa in 2005 for ''Los girasoles ciegos'', a book composed of four stories set in the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...

. The work, published at the age of 63, also won the Premio de la Crítica. The last story of the book -the one that gives it its name- was taken to the cinema in 2008 by

José Luis Cuerda José Luis Cuerda Martínez (18 February 19474 February 2020) was a Spanish filmmaker. He is nationally recognised and considered to be amongst the greatest and most influential Spanish directors of all time, having made such critically successfu ...

, who also wrote the script along with

Rafael Azcona Rafael Azcona Fernández (24 October 1926 – 24 March 2008) was a Spanish screenwriter and novelist who worked with some of the best Spanish and international filmmakers. Azcona won five Goya Awards during his career, including a lifetim ...

, and it has the same name. Although he did not dedicate himself to literature until his later years, Méndez worked closely with it. He was an editor at the publishers Les Punxes and Montena, among others, and co-founder in the 1960s of Ciencia Nueva, which was closed by

Manuel Fraga Manuel Fraga Iribarne (; 23 November 1922 – 15 January 2012) was a Spanish professor and politician during the dictatorship of Francisco Franco, who was also one of the founders of the People's Alliance (Spain), People's Alliance (AP). Fraga ...

in 1969. He collaborated on TVE dramatic plays and was a screenwriter with

Pilar Miró Pilar Mercedes Miró Romero (20 April 1940 – 19 October 1997) was a Spanish screenwriter and film director. She was the General Director of RTVE from 1986 to 1989. In the 1990s, she directed the television broadcasts of the weddings of the dau ...

. He died of cancer in Madrid on December 30, 2004, and was cremated.

References

Spanish male novelists 1941 births 2004 deaths 20th-century Spanish novelists 21st-century Spanish novelists 20th-century Spanish male writers 21st-century Spanish male writers {{Spain-writer-stub