He was born in Montevideo, Uruguay, but now lives in Barcelona, Spain. While studying psychology in Brazil, he realised he wanted to explore other career paths. An advertisement for a children's literature competition in a newspaper showed him the way forward. This would be the beginning of a prolific and award-winning career as a writer. He has won prizes as important as the Serra d'Or (the first time the prize was awarded to a book not written in Catalan), the Apel les Mestres, the Austral and the Lazarillo prize in 1987.