This year the winner is Paco Nadal who wrote “Pedro Parama ya no vive aqui” which translates as Pedro Parama No Longer Lives Here. In addition to being available in the hotel rooms, Nadal receives €18,000 and will be heavily promoted in Spanish libraries during the first part of 2010.
The book is about Mexico and combines a travel narrative with comments on the history and culture of Mexico. Or so I am told because unfortunately I read no Spanish and Nadal’s work does not seem to be readily available in English. The book is not just one journey for it covers travels covering over 15 years. There are 6 chapters, each of which can be read as a separate story.
Nadal is a Spanish travel writer who writes regularly for “El Pais.” He has his own blog, http://lacomunidad.elpais.com/paco-nadal, (again only in Spanish) which is updated regularly and he has also worked with National Geographic and Lonely Planet.
Eurostars Hotels are a chain of 4 and five star hotels. As such they have a lot of competition. These days when hotels offer the same sort of loyalty packages to draw in visitors, you know the sort of thing, free hotel nights, discounts off car rental companies, dedicated check-ins etc, the way forward may well be to be different. And you have to say that by sponsoring this award and then making the book available to al its guests, Eurostars hotels are doing just that.
