Juan José Millás

When I was a little girl, my dad gave me “Cuentos a la interperie”, a book written by Juan José Millás, a Spanish writer and journalist. From that moment, he became a great reference for me, especially for his particular way of writing. This should be the first book that I read that wasn’t jus for children. It opened a whole new world of reading for me.

Juan José Millás was born in 1946, in Valencia, but has spent most of his life in Madrid, where he studied philosophy and literature at the Complutense University. When he was a child, he wasn’t a very good student, so he did the majority of his schoolwork at night, while he worked in a savings bank. Then, he abandoned his career at the university in his third year. After that, he obtained a job as an administrator in Iberia, dedicating himself to reading and writing.

He has written many books (“The city”, “Harsh times”, “Laura and Julio”, among others) and has won a lot of awards ( like Planet Award or Spring Award). And his work has been translated into 23 languages!

I really admire him because he writes in a very original and fun way. It is impossible to get bored reading his books.