Writer Javier Cercas won the 2025 Jacques Delors European Book Prize for his works Crazy God at the end of the worldabout the trip he took to meet Pope Francis before his death on April 21. Halfway between chronicle, essay, biography and autobiography, the book is based on the trip the author made with the pontiff’s entourage to Mongolia in 2023, with the aim of answering the question: whether his mother, upon her death, would join his father to enjoy eternal life. The result is also an unfiltered approach to the Vatican and its secrets based on conversations with cardinals, missionaries, Catholic intellectuals, and the Pope himself.
The jury met on November 25 in Paris, where it decided that the nineteenth prize would go to the Spanish author. The other two finalist books were The war after: Russia against the West, Written by German political scientist Carlo Massala and Etty Hillsum. his life story, By the Dutch writer Judith Colemeier. The prize, created in 2007, is awarded annually to a novel and an article promoting European values.
This is the second time that Cercas has won this award, after receiving it in 2016 quack, It details Spaniard Enrique Marco, a real-life figure who pretended for years to be a Nazi camp survivor and who came to head the Spanish Society of Survivors, until his conviction was revealed in 2005. The book was made into a film last year by directors Aitor Arrighi and John Garaño.
The award ceremony – worth 10,000 euros – will be held in 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 Mizzola, President of the European Parliament; Pascal Lamy, Chairman of the Award Sponsorship Committee, and Andrei Kurkov, Chairman of the Jury.
Cercas, 63, was born in Cáceres and is a professor of literature at the University of Girona. Includes his previous works Salamis soldiers, Boundary laws, Shadow King and Anatomy of a moment. Of the latter, which analyzes the coup of February 23, 1981 in Spain, a series of the same name has just been released. Since 2024, Cercas has been part of the Royal Spanish Academy.