Clike every year booksellers they set out to choose the literary heroine who will represent them all in 2025. Our booksellers have nominated their favorite protagonists for the iO Donna literary prize “Heroines of today”. Here you are the 12 titles and the authors.
“The Midwife of Nagyrév”
by Sabrina Zuccato (Marsilio)
A dark heroine. Because sometimes we also need darkness. To save ourselves.
“Clementine”
by Giuliana Salvi (Einaudi)
Inspired by the author’s great-grandmother, Clementina gradually matured her feminist beliefs in the reasoning of her lessons.
“Everything is for Giulia”
by Lucia Tancredi (Ponte alle Grazie)
Giulia Schucht is an intellectual, a musician who comes from the East and who falls in love with Antonio Gramsci.
“Miss Bee”
by Alessia Gazzola (Longanesi)
A trainee amateur detective, Miss Bee tries to solve mysteries, intrigues and puzzles in the English capital.
“The first Queen”
by Alessandra Selmi (North)
Two women at opposite ends of the social ladder, but linked by the same desire to rebel against the imposed rules. With strength and courage.
“Paolina Leopardi. In the shadow of the poet”
by Francesca Monaco (Morellini)
Paolina, who no one remembers, is a great little heroine who did not give up on the world that wanted her silent and forgotten.
“Story of a good girl”
by Arianna Farinelli (Einaudi)
Arianna Farinelli tells us in a passionate memoir her story as a woman who has fought to free herself from conditioning since adolescence.
“His daughter”
by Chiara Marchelli (Feltrinelli)
Here we are talking about a relationship between a couple where there are not just two actors, but in no couple is there ever really just two of them.
“Like salt on the skin”
by Anna Pavignano (Piemme)
You can fight against discrimination and succeed in overcoming it with the strength of the intelligence of your mind and heart.
“The Nettle Rule”
by Nunzia Scalzo (Feltrinelli)
An apparently gender book that allows us to rethink how the female condition has changed.
“Dirty water”
by Nadeesha Uyangoda (Einaudi)
A choral tale of half-fulfilled dreams, of intergenerational weights to balance, a meeting that changes your gaze.
“Malanima”
by Rosita Manuguerra (Feltrinelli)
“Malanima” is the feeling that pushes Nietta to leave the island after her mother’s death. Some characters love the island, others hate it.
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