Jesús Moncada i Estruga was a narrator and translator. His work is a re-creation, somewhere between realism and fantasy, of the mythical past of the old town of Mequinenza -now submerged beneath the waters of the river Ebro-.
Considered one of the most important Catalan authors of his time, he received various prizes for his work, among them the Premio Ciutat de Barcelona and the Premio Nacional de la Crítica in 1989 for Camí de sirga and the Creu de Sant Jordi, awarded by the Generalitat de Catalunya in 2001. In 2004—a few months before his death—he received the Premio de las Letras Aragonesas.
Moncada is one of the most translated authors of Catalan literature. Camí de sirga has been translated into fifteen languages, among them Japanese and Vietnamese. He also translated into Catalan many Spanish, French, and English works of authors such as Guillaume Apollinaire, Alexandre Dumas, père, Jules Verne, and Boris Vian.
On 9 July 2005 he returned to Mequinenza, where he was awarded the title of "favorite son." He died on 13 June 2005 from cancer.