06/10/07

Dr. Josep A. Pujante Conesa is the winner of the third edition of the Eurostars Hotels Travel Narrative Prize.

The collection of short stories “COURSE SET TO THE SEVEN ISLANDS” (RUMBO A LAS SIETE ISLAS), by doctor and sportsman, Josep Antoni Pujante Conesa, has won the third edition of the Eurostars Hotels Travel Narrative Prize, an event organized by the Hotusa Group in conjunction with the publishing house, RBA Libros and the University of Barcelona, endowed with a prize fund of 18,000 euros. The judges forming the panel for this third edition comprised, in addition to representatives from the collaborating entities, writers Ángela Vallvey and Alfredo Conde.

“COURSE SET TO THE SEVENISLANDS” (RUMBO A LAS SIETE ISLAS) is the story of a personal challenge that the author tackled after crowning the seven highest mountains on the five continents and the two polar regions: the ascent to the summits of the seven largest islands in the world. The work presented for the competition is focused on three of his most exciting climbs that took place in Madagascar, New Guinea and Greenland.

This is an adventure book in the best style. It includes voyages to remote lands, recreates encounters with unknown cultures, describes hostile landscapes and meticulously details climbing experiences taken to the extreme in life and death situations. A complete book, thrilling and moving, that clients staying at Eurostars Hotels will be able to enjoy free of charge as from December, 2007.

Josep A. Pujante (Barcelona, 1956), a medical man, writer and diplomat from Catalonia is a prolific traveller, adventurer and sportsman who has received 16 medals, amongst them an award by the Order of the International Olympic Committee. He is the second person in history to have crowned the Seven Summits, the highest peaks on the five continents and polar regions, as well as the seven largest islands in the world.

Pujante asserts that “climbing mountains is not a sport, it is culture, it is ethnology, anthropology, science, religion; it is many things. If I just described where I climb, the books would be only five pages long, but this cultural vision gives rise to far more that must be told”.