Philip Roth Prince of Asturias Award for Literature 2012

At its meeting in Oviedo, the Jury for the 2012 Prince of Asturias Award for Literature, composed of Mr Luis María Anson Oliart, Mr J. J. Armas Marcelo, Mr Xuan Bello Fernández, Ms Blanca Berasátegui Garaizábal, Ms Amelia Castilla Alcolado, Mr Juan Cruz Ruiz, Mr José Luis García Martín, Mr Álex Grijelmo García, Mr Manuel Llorente Manchado, Ms Rosa Navarro Durán, Ms Soledad Puértolas Villanueva, Mr Fernando Rodríguez Lafuente, Mr Fernando Sánchez Dragó, Ms Diana Sorensen, Mr Sergio Vila-Sanjuan Robert, chaired by Mr José Manuel Blecua Perdices and with Mr Román Suárez Blanco acting as secretary, has decided by majority vote to confer the 2012 Prince of Asturias Award for Literature on the writer Philip Roth. The narrative work of Philip Roth forms part of the great American novel, in the tradition of Dos Passos, Scott Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Faulkner, Bellow and Malamud. Characters, events and plots form a complex view of contemporary reality torn between reason and feeling, such as the sign of the times and the sense of unease about the present. His literary quality is displayed in his fluid, incisive writing.

Oviedo, 6th June 2012