"Refuge", by Olga Tokarczuk

Refuge, by Olga Tokarczuk, is the fourth publication in the Escribir el Prado collection, following previous releases of The Eye of the Painter, by 2014 Prince of Asturias Award for Literature winner John Banville, The Spirit Level, by 2020 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction winner Chloe Aridjis, and The Museum Guard, by 2003 Nobel Prize in Literature winner J.M. Coetzee, organised by the Museo Nacional del Prado with the sponsorship of the Loewe Foundation and in collaboration with Granta in Spanish.

Olga Tokarczuk (Sulechów, Poland, 1962) has a degree in Psychology from the University of Warsaw. At first, the author combined writing her early works with her work in healthcare and psychotherapy. However, the success of her initial publications led her to decide to become a full- time writer.

She began writing short stories under the pseudonym Natasza Borodin. In 2008, she won the Nike Prize, Poland's most important literary award, for her novel Flights , a prize she won for the second time in 2015 for The Books of Jacob. She also became the first Polish writer to receive the International Man Booker Prize (2018). In 2019, Olga Tokarczuk (winner in 2018) and Peter Handke (winner in 2019) received the Nobel Prize in Literature, marking the first time that the Swedish Academy awarded the prizes for two consecutive years at the same ceremony.