The secret of Marcial, Nadal Prize 2025
The Nadal Novel Prize 2025, the longest-running literary award in Spain, has been awarded to El secreto de Marcial, by the Argentine writer Jorge Fernández Díaz. This novel will be available in bookstores from February 5 in Spain, under the label of Ediciones Destino.
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This story was defined by the publisher as “tremendously beautiful and painful, written with great narrative pulse and even with touches of suspense, which not only pays homage to the suffering Spanish migrants, but also delves into the most hidden family mysteries and the often thorny relationship between parents and children who love each other.”
The plot revolves around Marcial Fernández, an Asturian emigrant who, like so many men of his time, had difficulty communicating with his son, whom he punished with years of silence. The only link between them was the classic Hollywood movies they watched on television, a sentimental education full of subtleties and misunderstandings that Marcial imparted indirectly. Years later, the son tries to decipher his father's true personality after his death. As he progresses in reconstructing his story, the narrator finds clues that his father led a secret life and becomes obsessed with discovering it.
During the award ceremony in Barcelona, Jorge Fernández Díaz gave a speech of thanks, where he declared: “I am the son of two Asturians who emigrated to Argentina in the post-Spanish civil war amid hunger, persecution and fear. I dedicate this novel especially to that forgotten community where I was raised and where I learned so many things. But, above all, the novel focuses on the person who, for me, in that community, is the most mysterious of all: my father, Marcial Fernández. There is only one mother, but every father is an enigma, and I decided to solve it. Why was my father an enigma? Because he belonged to that generation of men who could not communicate with their children. The way he had to teach me things was to watch together the old black and white Hollywood movies that we saw on television. That was the sentimental education”

For Fernández Díaz, this recognition adds to an outstanding career as a writer and journalist, with more than 40 years of experience. In 2017 he joined the Argentine Academy of Letters and was previously awarded the Cross of the Order of Isabel la Católica in 2012. His literary work includes: La logia de Cádiz (2010),Alguien quieres ver muerto a Emilio Malbrán (2012), Te amaré locamente (2016), El hombre que se inventó a sí mismo (Planeta, 2018) and the police saga starring Agent Remil: El puñal (Destino, 2015), finalist of the Grand Prix de Literatura Policial de France 2019 and the Violeta Negra Festival in Toulouse 2020; La herida (Destino, 2018) and La traición (2021).
The Nadal Prize, founded in the summer of 1944, celebrates its 81st edition in 2025, consolidating itself as the oldest award given in Spain in the literary field, and recognizes unpublished works in Spanish. In its first call, 26 works were submitted, while in the current edition it had a very high participation, with 769 novels submitted. On this occasion, the jury was made up of Inés Martín Rodrigo, Care Santos, Lorenzo Silva, Andrés Trapiello and Emili Rosales. The prize money is 30,000 euros.
Throughout its history, the Nadal Prize has been awarded to distinguished international writers such as Carmen Laforet, José María Gironella, Miguel Delibes, Luis Romero, Carmen Martín Gaite, Álvaro Cunqueiro, Rafael Sánchez Ferlosio and Ana María Matute.