- The novel breaks with the traditional scheme of the police genre and focuses on the ethical and moral dilemmas of the characters after the death of one of them

- For the work of fiction, the author has been inspired by his search as a doctoral student in political philosophy in Arizona

Mentir a las moscas, by Arià Paco, winner of the XXVI "Valldaura-Memorial Pere Calders" Novel Prize, is now available in bookstores. The work, presented under the pseudonym of Señor Boquete, was awarded in the last edition of the award jointly convened by the Cerdanyola del Vallès City Council and the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), and endowed with 3,000 euros.

Lying to the flies tells the story of Amir, one of the refugees threatened by the extreme right to expel, and who discovers the corpse of Magda, a classmate, in the worst possible place: the refugee neighborhood. In a context where elections are only two days away, if this fact comes to light, it can determine the electoral result.

The novel breaks with the traditional scheme of the police genre, in which all moral problems are generally put aside to focus on solving a mystery. Thus, the story, told through various voices, focuses on the moral trance of those who find the body. The story also contains the stories of people with diverse origins that the author has met throughout his stay in the United States, so it is dedicated, according to the writer, "to all the people who inhabit this book." In fact, in the words of Arià Paco, Lying to the flies is "an ethical exploration of the political incentives for lying and its clash with conscience."

Arià Paco is from Igualada and is 27 years old. He is currently studying a Ph.D. in Philosophy at the University of Arizona, where he specializes in moral and political philosophy. The author, has written part of the book to the USA. Many of the problems that the novel deals with, such as the perversions of electoralism and its effects on behavior, are the result of his research.

The work was chosen from a total of 40 originals. The members of the jury for this edition, Anna Ballbona Puig; Roser Blázquez Gómez; Michel Bourret Guasteví; Jordi Jordana Vidal and Josep Maria Riera, in their defense, considered it an intimate story that combined literary ambition with a game of points of view, as well as different knowledge and vital spaces, highlighting that it showed a rigorous psychological coherence of the characters and of the plot.

The UAB Publications Service has been in charge of producing the volume, which is available at the Documenta and LAIE (Calle Pau Claris) bookstores in Barcelona, ​​and at Aqualata in Igualada, among others, and since the end of 2020. It has also edited the electronic format (Pdf), which can be purchased on online sales platforms, such as Unebook or Google Play books. The book, along with the rest of the 2020 literary awards, is included in the Gabriel Ferrater collection dedicated to works of literary fiction. In addition to publishing the volumes of the literary awards, the UAB publishing house produces the didactic materials aimed at the degrees that the university offers to students and contributes to the dissemination of scientific and technical activity with the publication of books, magazines scientific studies and doctoral theses, promoting links and the transfer of knowledge between the university and society with the publication of works of a cultural nature.