María de la Almudena Grandes Hernández was a Spanish writer. Author of 14 novels and three short-story collections, her work has been translated into twenty languages and frequently adapted to film. She won the National Literature Prize for Narrative and the Prix Méditerranée among other honors. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez called her "one of the most important writers of our time."

The Prix Méditerranée is a French literary award. It was created in 1984 in Perpignan by the Mediterranean Centre of Literature (CML) in order to promote cultural interaction among the numerous countries surrounding the Mediterranean Sea. Two awards are handed out every year, the Prix Méditerranée itself and the Prix Méditerranée Étranger. The latter is given to a writer from the Mediterranean basin whose original work has been translated into French.