Writer Javier Cercas won the Jaques Delors 2025 European Book Prize for his work God’s madman at the end of the worldon the trip he made to meet Pope Francis before he died on April 21st. Halfway between news, essay, biography and autobiography, the book is based on the journey that the author undertook with the Pontiff’s entourage in Mongolia in 2023, with the aim of answering a question: whether his mother, when she died, would have joined her father to enjoy eternal life. The result is also an unfiltered approach to the Vatican and its mysteries, based on conversations with cardinals, missionaries, Catholic intellectuals and with the Pope himself.
The jury met on November 25th in Paris, where it decided that the 19th prize goes to the Spanish author. The other two finalist books were The war after: Russia against the West, by the German political scientist Carlo Masala e Etty Hillesum. The story of his life, by Dutch author Judith Koelemeijer. The prize, created in 2007, annually recognizes a novel and an essay that promote European values.
It is the second time that Cercas has won this award, after obtaining it in 2016 with The impostor, in which he details the personality of the Spaniard Enric Marco, a real-life character who posed for years as a survivor of a Nazi camp and came to preside over the Spanish survivors’ association, until he was unmasked in 2005. The book was adapted for film last year by directors Aitor Arregi and Jon Garaño.
The award ceremony – worth 10,000 euros – will take place at the European Parliament in Brussels on 10 December 2025 at 6pm, in the presence of Sabine Verheyen, Vice President of the European Parliament; Roberta Metsola, President of the European Parliament; Pascal Lamy, president of the prize sponsorship committee, and Andrei Kurkov, president of the jury.
Cercas, 63 years old, was born in Cáceres and is a professor of literature at the University of Girona. His previous works include Soldiers of Salamis, The laws of the border, The shadow monarch AND Anatomy of a moment. The adaptation of the series of the same name has just been released, which analyzes the coup d’état of 23 February 1981 in Spain. Since 2024 Cercas has been part of the Royal Spanish Academy.
