More than a story that unfolds, it evolves and takes shape as events occur, situations accumulate, and the plot progresses, Who saves a lifeNúria Cadenes's work is like a darkened altarpiece that is gradually illuminated by non-consecutive panels. The structural choices made by the author—short chapters, a disordered chronology, and a tendency toward synthetic and elliptical expression—give the work more the feel of a complicated and elusive puzzle than an easily understandable story or narrative.

At the beginning of Who saves a life, with which Núria Cadenas (Barcelona, ​​1970) has won the seventh Proa Prize. A priest, Father Joan, is beaten by a former member of the Gestapo. They are in Organyà, inside the church, in 1950. The novel then flashes back to the previous decade, to the height of World War II, when the Pyrenean border became a land of passage and refuge. Father Joan, the son of a peasant family, collaborates with other resistance fighters—among them Melitón, Rosita, and Isabel—helping Jews, Allied airmen, and fugitives from Nazism to cross the border. This is the starting point of a story in which clandestine actions are intertwined with the moral dilemmas they can entail. "At certain historical moments, collective salvation depends on the actions of a few just and courageous people. Doing good, silently and riskily, as the characters in the novel do, demands total sacrifice," explains Xavier Pla, spokesperson for the jury. "Núria Cadenes has written a novel that is truly unforgettable."