MADRID ? Author and newspaper columnist Clara Sanchez, 54, has been awarded the Nadal Prize, Spain's oldest literature award, media reported Wednesday.

Sanchez won the prize for her novel "Lo que esconde tu nombre" or "What your name hides" about two men in their 80s ? one a former Nazi who lives on the east coast of Spain and the other a survivor of the Mauthausen concentration camp who lives in Argentina.

In the book a young pregnant woman slowly discovers the real identity of her neighbor, the former Nazi, and the role he played at the infamous camp in Austria.

Sanchez writes a column for top-selling Spanish newspaper El Pais and has published eight other books which have been translated into French, German, Greek, Portuguese and Russian, according to her blog.

The Nadal Prize is worth 18,000 euros ($26,000). It has been awarded every year since 1944 by the Barcelona-based Destino publishing house.

Last year the prize went to journalist and author Maruja Torres for her novel "Esperadme en el Cielo" or "Wait for Me in Heaven", in which the protagonist meets old friends, Manolo and Terenci, in heaven.