A jury made up of the main cultural critics and journalists in the country and members of the Culture Commission of the El Libro Foundation, chose the novel “Una música”, by Hernán Ronsino, as the best book of 2022.
The award has an endowment of $150,000 and also distinguishes the publishing label (in this case, eternal cadence). The choice of the work arises from a vote during the Book Fair edition and considers all the volumes published in the previous year, in Argentina, in all genres. In previous editions, they obtained the award Eugenia Almeida, Martin Kohan and Laura Ramos.
“Exactly 20 years ago, in 2003, at the Fair, I presented my first book of stories, at a table with Dalmiro Sáenz and all his students,” said Ronsino on May 6, when he received the award from the President of the Foundation The Book, Alejandro Vaccaro-. ‘Una música’ taught me a lot about the craft of writing. I have been publishing in Eterna Cadencia for 14 years and I still feel that it is the best place. I am glad that their work is also recognized here”.
Leonora Diament, Pablo Braun, Virginia Ruano and Yanina Catellani from Eterna Cadencia also received a plaque that distinguishes them as editors.
X-ray of a writer
For those who have never read Hernan Ronsino, it is worth telling some details of his career. He is a sociologist and teacher at the UBA. He was born in 1975 in Chivilcoy, a town that will repeatedly appear as the setting for his stories.
His first book of short stories “I will vomit you out of my mouth”, received a mention from the National Endowment for the Arts. The trilogy of “Decomposition”, “Glaxo” and “Lumbre” It was the one that consecrated him as one of the most interesting authors of our country. These books were followed by the volume of essays “Notas de campo” and his fourth novel, “Camerón”. In 2020, he won the Anna Seghers Award and, in 2021, the Municipal Award of the City of Buenos Aires.
Complex and concentric, “Una música” is the story of an inheritance and a mandate and also, of how to escape from an unwanted destiny. Juan Sebastián Lebonté, the protagonist of the book, is a musician and, at the beginning of the novel, he is in Europe on a tour planned by his representative. There he receives the news of the death of his father and this event precipitates a flight that will have several stages. From Europe he travels to Buenos Aires. And from the city, to the suburb where his inheritance is located: a little field occupied by marginal characters, secretly related to the paternal past. His father is the one who forced him to dedicate himself to music. Fanatic of a record and an artist, Bill Turner’s “Hudson”; the rhythm of each theme of this ensemble of melodies seems to be intertwined with the logic of the fugue. Lebonté’s escape is nothing more than a return to his roots and also the opportunity to choose for himself a possible path for his life.
In the novel there are echoes of Juan José Saer (Ronsino was always related to the writer from Santa Fe) but also of Julio Cortázar and the jazz that crosses his stories and novels. Cortázar, who lived in Chivilcoy, Ronsino’s hometown, reappears here without being named, in the dense obsession with “a music”.
the other prize
On May 11, the other literary distinction granted by the Fair will also be delivered. He El Libro Foundation Literary Awardwhich distinguishes an unpublished volume of short stories, written in Spanish.
In its fifth edition, the award went to “Geography and history”, by the Spanish writer Elena Alonso Frayle. The second distinction will be received by the Paraguayan writer Sebastián Ocampo, for “Poliedro”.
The jury for this award was made up of María Rosa Lojo, Juan Cruz Ruiz and Serguio Olguín.
“Being honored with this great prize in Argentina has a very significant meaning for me.
special, since Buenos Aires – the city where I lived for four years – is the place in the world where I took my first steps as a writer. I let myself be infected by the literary effervescence of this city, I attended literary workshops and imbued myself with the rich tradition of short stories from the River Plate. That is why I now experience something similar to a return to the origins; I feel that I have completed a circle, that a kind of prediction has come true and that I am now returning to my literary home. And that I do it by entering through a very large door. A thousand thanks to the jury and to all those who have made this possible,” Frayle said upon hearing the news of her award.
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