Moroccan-Spanish Author Najat El Hachmi Wins Prestigious Nadal Prize for Novel

This prize is a new victory in the list of awards for the Hispano-Moroccan writer. Najat El Hachimi has already won the Sant Joan BBVA literary prize for Catalan literature for her novel "La filla estrangera" and the Ramon Llull prize as well as the Ulysse prize for her novel "L’ultim Patriarca".

The novel that has just won the 2021 Nadal Prize was written under the pseudonym Cristina López. "Monday, They Will Love Us" is the story of two young women from Moroccan immigrant backgrounds. The events take place in the years preceding the coronavirus pandemic and highlight the difficulties the two young women will go through. Sexism, machismo, daily difficulties, the novel shows the realities of life in a neighborhood where most of the inhabitants are immigrants.

Najat El Hachimi was born in 1976 in Béni Sidel, in the province of Nador. She will leave her native region for Catalonia at the age of 8. After attending Catalan schools, she later joined the university in the Department of Arabic Philology. She is now a cultural animator in the town hall.