(ANS – Madrid) – Today, 25 November, is celebrated “International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women” introduced by the Assembly of the United Nations on 17 December 1999, number 54/134, with the invitation to Governments, international organisations and NGO to organise activities to make public opinion aware of the problem. In this context we present the book “Palabras envenenadas” (Poisoned words) by the writer Maite Carranza which deals with the ill-treatment of women.

On Friday 18 November the Catalan writer Maite Carranza was awarded the National Prize for Literature in the Childrens and Young Peoples category for 2011 with her book  “Palabras envenenadas” published by the Salesian Edebé Press.

“I wanted to speak about ill-treatment, about sexual abuse, about abuse by men against women,” she explains in an article in El País regarding her book. “It was my intention to say clearly that sexual abuse destroys the self-esteem and the personality of the victims.”

“Palabras envenenadas” tells the story of a fearful day experienced by three people close to Bárbara Molina, who mysteriously disappeared at fifteen. A mystery unresolved after four years which now takes a fresh turn Sometimes the truth remains hidden in the dark and it only needs a window to be opened to reveal it. A story of lies, secrets, deceit, false appearances, which point the finger at the wounds of false myths. A disturbing relationship which uncovers the hypocrisy of modern Spanish society. A courageous accusation of sexual abuse in childhood and its devastating consequences, invisible in our comfortable world.

The book ahs been translated into Castiglian, Galizian and Basque and is available also in other languages in Holland, Brazil, Italy, France, Russia and Korea. It also won the Edebé Prize for Youth Literature 2010 and the Critica Serra d'Or Prize 2011.

The award is made by the Ministry for Culture for a work written by a Spanish author in one of the official languages of the State and published in Spain during 2010 and is worth 20 thousand euro.

Maite Carranza (Barcelona 1958), an author and script writer worked for a number of years as a teacher of language and literature at the beginning of her career in the field of childrens and young peoples literature. She has written over 40 books.

Published 25/11/2011