Spanish writer, member of the Royal Spanish Academy, honorary member of the Academy of Fine Letters of Granada, and recipient of the 2013 Princess of Asturias Award for Literature. He graduated from a Salesian school, then studied art history at the University of Granada and journalism in Madrid. His first book, published in 1984 under the title El Robinson urbano (The Urban Robinson), was a collection of articles written for the Granada daily Ideal. Muñoz Molina’s first novel, Beatus ille, was published in 1986. This novel was the first to feature the imaginary city of Mágina, familiar from his later works, a fictional embodiment of Úbeda, the writer’s hometown. In 1987 Muñoz Molina received the Critics’ Prize and the National Prize for Literature for the novel El invierno en Lisboa (Winter in Lisbon), and in 1991 the Planeta Award for the novel The Polish Rider. The following year he received the National Prize for Literature for the same novel. In 1995 he was elected a member of the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE). In 2007 he became an honorary doctor of the University of Jaén. He heads the Cervantes Institute branch in New York. His wife is the writer Elvira Lindo. In his novels he often turns to the past, both biographical and historical (the Spanish Civil War, etc.). At the same time, he makes active use of the poetics of popular genres of art, such as the thriller, film noir, and others. The writer’s books have been translated into many languages around the world, including Turkish and Korean. Unfortunately, only The Polish Rider has been translated into Russian.