Krauze’s Novel “Dias de Lava” Awarded Nuevas Letras Prize

He’s considered an emerging talent in the publishing world… And, now Daniel Krauze has collected a big writing honor.

The 30-year-old Mexican writer’s novel Dias de Lava was honored in the inaugural edition of the Nuevas Letras Prize, which is awarded by the Planeta Publishing Corporation and the Sanborns Group.

Daniel Krauze

Krauze’s honor includes a cash prize of 1 million pesos (about $78,000).

Dias de Lava tells the story of a Mexican man named Matias, who after the death of his father returns to his own country after living abroad for six years, only to come face to face with what made him leave in the first place.

Matias finally goes through a painful process of re-adaptation in which “he has to deal with his own past of destroying the lives of all those he left and all those who loved him,” a review of the work says.

The Letras Nuevas Prize was awarded at the Soumaya Museum by a jury made up of Angeles Mastretta, Marisol Schulz, Francisco Martin Moreno, Fernando Solana and Gabriel Sandoval.

The Sanborn Group and Planeta Publishing see the new prize as “an important step in the promotion and acknowledgment of Mexican writers and their peerless storytelling quality.”

The winning work will be published by the Joaquin Mortiz firm and will be presented at this year’s Guadalajara International Book Fair.

Krauze is the son of the writer Enrique Krauze. Krauze’s first novel Cuervos was released in 2007, and he also presented Fiebre in 2010.