Clara Sánchez is a Spanish

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

 novelist. Born in Guadalajara

Guadalajara, Spain

Guadalajara is a city and municipality in the autonomous community of Castile-La Mancha, Spain, and in the natural region of La Alcarria. It is the capital of the province of Guadalajara. It is located roughly 60 km northeast of Madrid on the Henares River, and has a population of 83,789...

, her childhood was marked by frequent travel owing to her father's career. She earned her degree in Spanish philology from Complutense University of Madrid

Complutense University of Madrid

The Complutense University of Madrid is a university in Madrid, and one of the oldest universities in the world. It is located on a sprawling campus that occupies the entirety of the Ciudad Universitaria district of Madrid, with annexes in the district of Somosaguas in the neighboring city of...

, and later made her home in that city. Since receiving her degree, she has taught at the National University of Distance Education.

Sanchez has provided prefaces for the works of foreign authors including Yukio Mishima

Yukio Mishima

was the pen name of , a Japanese author, poet, playwright, actor and film director, also remembered for his ritual suicide by seppuku after a failed coup d'état...

 and Andrzej Szczypiorski

Andrzej Szczypiorski

Andrzej Szczypiorski was a Polish novelist and politician.His father, Adam Szczypiorski, was a political activist, historian and mathematician....

, has written for a variety of national periodicals, and has been an occasional contributor to the TVE

Televisión Española

Televisión Española is the national state-owned public-service television broadcaster in Spain. TVE's activities were previously financed by a combination of advertising revenue and subsidies from the national government, but since it's been supported by subsidies only.TVE belongs to the RTVE...

 series ¡Qué grande es el cine! directed by José Luis Garci

José Luis Garci

José Luis Garci is a producer, critic, TV presenter, writer, screenwriter and film director in Spanish cinema. He earned worldwide acclaim and his country's first Best Foreign Language Film Oscar for Begin the Beguine...

. Her debut novel, Piedras preciosas (1989), received critical acclaim. In common with her subsequent work, it employs intimistic, costumbrist prose and cynical humor to reveal the inadequacies of the modern world. After No es distinta la noche (1990) and El palacio varado (1993) came Desde el mirador (1996), an exploration of human vulnerability taking the form of a portrait of a forty-year-old woman; El misterio de todos los días (1999), the story of a female professor who falls in love with one of her students; and Últimas noticias del paraíso (2000), an exploration of the confusion and alienation of contemporary youth, which won the prestigious Alfaguara Prize in 2000. Her work has been published both in Spain and Latin America.

In 2010 Sanchez received the Premio Nadal

Premio Nadal

Premio Nadal is a Spanish literary prize awarded annually by the publishing house Ediciones Destino, part of Planeta. It has been awarded every year on January 6 since 1944...

 for her novel Lo que esconde tu nombre, a psychological thriller whose protagonists include a Spanish republican

Second Spanish Republic

The Second Spanish Republic was the government of Spain between April 14 1931, and its destruction by a military rebellion, led by General Francisco Franco....

 survivor of Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp

Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp

Mauthausen Concentration Camp grew to become a large group of Nazi concentration camps that was built around the villages of Mauthausen and Gusen in Upper Austria, roughly east of the city of Linz.Initially a single camp at Mauthausen, it expanded over time and by the summer of 1940, the...

 and an alienated young woman who cross paths with an elderly Nazi couple in the Costa del Sol

Costa del Sol

The Costa del Sol is a region in the south of Spain, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, comprising the coastal towns and communities along the Mediterranean coastline of the Málaga province. The Costa del Sol is situated between two lesser known costas: Costa de la Luz and Costa Tropical...

.

Novels

• Piedras Preciosas (1989)
• No es distinta la noche (1990)
• El palacio varado (1993)
• Desde el mirador (1996)
• El misterio de todos los días (1999)
• Últimas noticias del paraíso (Premio Alfaguara 2000), Ed. Alfaguara, Madrid.
• Un millón de luces (2003) Ed. Alfaguara, Madrid. ISBN 84-204-0070-X
• Presentimiento (2008)
• Lo que esconde tu nombre (Premio Nadal 2010) Ed. Destino, Barcelona.