MADRID – Argentine writer Leopoldo Brizuela was awarded Monday the 2012 Alfaguara Novel Prize for his work “Una Misma Noche” (One Night), in which the author reflects on his country’s 1976-1983 military regime.

The winner of the award, which carries a $175,000 cash prize and is considered one of the most prestigious in the Spanish-speaking world, was announced by the jury, presided over by writer Rosa Montero and including Montxo Armendariz, Lluis Morral, Jürgen Dormagen, Antonio Orejudo and Pilar Reyes.

The jury underscored “the admirably restrained style of the author, who, with an economy of words, manages to create a disturbing, hypnotic text.”

In a conference call from Argentina, the winner said he was “very happy” about the prize and that for a long time he wanted to write about this subject because it still “troubles a lot of people” in his country.

Novelist, poet and translator, the 48-year-old Brizuela in his prizewinning novel uses the character of a writer in the 1940s, Leonardo Diego Bazan, to investigate the Argentine dictatorship and to try and exorcise what happened in those years of terror.

Brizuela is the author, among other works, of “Tejiendo Agua” (Weaving Water), which received the 1985 Fortabat Prize, and “Inglaterra: Una Fabula” (England: A Fable),” winner of the 1999 Clarin Prize.

The Alfaguara prizewinner has translated into Spanish a number of works by Henry James, Flannery O’Connor, Eudora Welty and others. EFE