The novel tells the story of a fascinating character, Archduke Ludwig Salvator of Austria, a story never told before. The author will be presenting it on Monday 6 November at the University of Zurich at an event organised by Prof. Dr. Rita Catrina Imboden, Srdjan Dragojevic and Georgia Álvarez Morera, of the Romanisches Seminar.

Carme Riera Guilera (Palma, 1948) was awarded the Prudenci Bertrana Prize for her first novel, Una primavera per a Domenico Guarini, and the Ramon Llull Prize for Joc de miralls (1989). However, her work that has received the most awards is Dins el darrer blau (1994), the historical novel that tells of the travails of the Mallorcan conversos, Jews who converted to Christianity, for which she won the 1994 Josep Pla Prize, followed in 1995 by the Joan Crexells and Lletra d’Or prizes and the National Prize for Narrative. The novel was also awarded the Elio Vittorini Prize for the best foreign book translated into Italian.

Riera has also written for television and for children. She is also an authority on contemporary literature, as demonstrated by her book La escuela de Barcelona (1988), for which she won the Anagrama Prize. In 2010, she received the Serra d’Or Critics Prize for Cap al cel obert and that same year the Government of Catalonia awarded her the Sant Jordi Cross. Five years later, she was given the National Prize for Spanish Letters.