Floatation Manual, the first novel by Jordi Marrón and winner of the 46th BBVA Sant Joan Prize, starts with a death to set a stalled life in motion. A woman returns to Portugal with her mother's ashes and, with them, to a summer of adolescence trapped in memory. Marrón avoids the more predictable path of solemn mourning and opts for humor, intrigue, and a protagonist who contemplates her own disaster from a distance.

For 46 years, the Sant Joan prize has recognized narrative work —fiction or otherwise— and throughout this almost half-century of history, it has recognized authors with long careers such as Vicenç Villatoro, Maria de la Pau Janer, Baltasar Porcel and Carme Riera, but it has also discovered, especially recently, voices such as those of Àlvar Caixal, Alba Gómez Gabriel and Aida Sunyol. Convened by the Fundació Antigues Caixes Catalanes and BBVA and endowed with 35,000 euros, the prize has been split into two categories this year and, without initial intention, has incorporated two new voices into the Catalan literary system, Jordi Marrón and Laura Pallarés.