Spanish author Mendoza wins 2016 Cervantes literature prize

FILE - In this Oct. 16, 2010 file photo, Spanish novelist Eduardo Mendoza poses for the media in Barcelona, Spain. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez, File)

MADRID -- Spanish novelist Eduardo Mendoza has won the 2016 Cervantes Prize, the Spanish-speaking world's highest literary honour, for bringing a "new narrative style to Spanish fiction."

Education and Culture Minister Inigo Mendez de Vigo announced the prize Wednesday, saying that beginning with Mendoza's 1975 novel, "La verdad sobre el caso Savolta" (The Truth about the Savolta Case), the author had reinvented Spanish fiction. He said Mendoza's books are "full of subtlety and irony."

Several of Mendoza's novels have been translated into other languages, including English, and three have been made into movies. He has also written a play and two short story collections.

Another popular Mendoza book was "La ciudad de los prodigios" (City of Marvels), about Barcelona, where he was born in 1943. The novel is about the industrial, social and economic changes the city saw during the 19th and 20th centuries.

Mendoza has a law degree and once worked as an interpreter at the United Nations in New York. He has also translated Shakespeare into Spanish.

The 125,000-euro ($132,000) Cervantes Prize generally alternates between Spanish and Latin American writers. Mexican author Fernando del Paso won the prize last year.

The prizes are presented each April 23 on the anniversary of the death of Miguel de Cervantes, author of "Don Quixote."