Juan Marsé

Juan Marsé Carbó (8 January 1933 – 18 July 2020) was a Spanish novelist, journalist, and screenwriter who used Spanish as his literary language. In 2008, he was awarded the Cervantes Prize, "the Spanish-language equivalent" to the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Biography

Marsé was born Juan Faneca Roca in Barcelona. His mother died in childbirth, and he was soon adopted by the Marsé family, taking the name Juan Marsé Carbó.

At age 14, without finishing his studies, Marsé began to work as a jewelry apprentice. He spent some time working in the Barcelonès magazine Arcinema, and began his literary career in 1958 with some stories that appeared in 'Insula' and 'El Ciervo' magazines. His story, "Nada para morir", won the Sésamo Prize, and in 1958 he published his first novel, Encerrados con un solo juguete (Locked Up With a Single Toy), which was a finalist of the Biblioteca Breve Seix Barral Prize.

Afterwards, he spent two years in Paris working as a garçon de laboratoire at the Pasteur Institute and translating screenplays and teaching Spanish. Back in Spain he wrote Esta cara de la luna (This Side of the Moon), which was repudiated and never included in his complete works. In 1965 he won the Biblioteca Breve Prize with Últimas tardes con Teresa (Last Evenings with Teresa).

He married Joaquina Hoyas and began working in advertising and writing dialogues for films. He wrote La oscura historia de la prima Montse (The Dark Story of Cousin Montse), which was not very successful, and Si te dicen que caí (If They Tell You I Fell), based on the murder of Carmen Broto. The latter was published in Mexico due to Francoist censorship and won the Novel International Prize.