Paul Auster Prince of Asturias Award for Literature 2006

At its meeting in Oviedo, the Jury for the 2006 Prince of Asturias Award for Letters, made up of Mr. Andrés Amorós, Mr. Luis María Anson, Mr. J. J. Armas Marcelo, Ms. Blanca Berasátegui, Ms. María Luisa Blanco, Mr. Rogelio Blanco, Mr. Pedro Casals, Mr. Antonio Colinas, Mr. Francisco Javier Fernández Vallina, Mr. José Luis García Martín, Ms. Pilar García Mouton, Mr. Manuel García Rubio, Mr. Emilio González Ferrín, Mr. Manuel Llorente, Ms. Rosa Navarro Durán, Ms. Berta Piñán, Mr. Fernando Rodríguez Lafuente, Mr. Fernando Sánchez Dragó, and Mr. Darío Villanueva, chaired by Mr. Víctor García de la Concha and with Mr. Román Suárez Blanco as secretary, has decided to bestow the 2006 Prince of Asturias Award for Letters on Paul Auster for the transformation in literature that he has wrought by blending the best of American and European traditions, for the innovation he has brought to narrative style in the cinema, and for integrating a number of devices used by the cinema into literature.

Auster has managed to appeal to young readers by exploring new perspectives of reality and by providing an aesthetically pleasing, invaluable account of the problems faced by the individual and by social groups in our times.

Oviedo, 31st May 2006