The Basque writer living in Gran Canaria Saúl Cepeda has won the Benito Pérez Armas novel prize for his work The cannibal, a story of global intrigue that involves food and the future of Humanity, the CajaCanarias Foundation reported today.
Endowed with 6,000 euros and the publication of the volume, a total of 44 literary pieces have been submitted to the competition in this edition of the Prize, says the CajaCanarias Foundation in a statement in which it recalls that 37 years of the award are celebrated.
Cannibal presents the story of Aníbal, an apathetic and carefree gastronomic journalist who is commissioned in New York to locate Leonardo Salax, the enigmatic chef around whose person an exclusive proselytism has emerged from important figures in the business and financial world.
Assisted by an anonymous telephone voice that provides everything he needs, the culinary chronicler takes the opportunity to escape the conventions of his life and start a hazardous journey to nowhere.
Hannibal will traumatically discover that a powerful criminal organization is also tracking down the elusive chef for sinister purposes.
As he finds out more about Salax, the writer will run into a global intrigue involving the food and future of the human race, forced to confront all his beliefs and face unsuspected revelations.
Saúl Cepeda Lezcano (Irún, 1976) is a lawyer, political scientist and journalist. Before, he was a university agitator, cook in the Balkan war, creative in a multinational tobacco company, literary black, nightclub manager, environmental activist, inventor of clocks and food critic, as stated by the Irundarra narrator in his biography.
His activity has taken him to more than a hundred countries, diverse such as Namibia, Malta, Mexico, Nauru or Taiwan.
In 1998 he was the youngest finalist in the history of the Antonio Machado Prize for Narrations and author of the book of short stories. Crimes to take away, from the novels Provided (XVI José María de Pereda Prize), Full Capacity, Odometer (XIII Eurostars Travel Narrative Award) and Water (XXII City of Getafe Black Novel Award); and the rehearsals Legumes, nutritious seeds for a sustainable future (FAO) and Justice on stage: Action!.
