He has won the 2025 Jaques Delors European Book Prize for his work, about the trip he made to meet the Pontiff. Halfway between chronicle, essay, biography and autobiography, the book is based on the journey that the author undertook with the Pontiff’s entourage to Mongolia in 2023, with the aim of answering a question: if his mother, when she died, would join her father to enjoy eternal life. The result is also an unfiltered approach to the Vatican and its mysteries based on conversations with cardinals, missionaries, Catholic intellectuals and the Pope himself.
The jury met on November 25 in Paris, where they decided that the 19th prize goes to the Spanish author. The other two finalist books have been The war after: Russia versus the West, by the German political scientist Carlo Masala and Etty Hillesum. The story of his life, by Dutch author Judith Koelemeijer. The award, created in 2007, annually recognizes a novel and an essay that promote European values.
It is the second time that Cercas has won this award, , in which he details the personality of the Spaniard, a real character who posed for years as a survivor of a Nazi camp and who came to preside over the Spanish association of survivors, until he was unmasked in 2005. The book was adapted to film last year by filmmakers Aitor Arregi and Jon Garaño.
The award ceremony – worth 10,000 euros – will be at the European Parliament in Brussels on December 10, 2025 at six in the afternoon, in the presence of Sabine Verheyen, vice president of the European Parliament; Roberta Metsola, President of the European Parliament; Pascal Lamy, president of the Prize Sponsorship Committee, and Andrei Kurkov, president of the jury.
Cercas, 63 years old, was born in Cáceres and is a professor of Literature at the University of Girona. His previous works include Soldiers of Salamis, The laws of the border, The shadow monarch and . Of the latter, which analyzes the coup d’état of February 23, 1981 in Spain, the adaptation of a series of the same name has just been released. From 2024, .
