Just over three years ago in 2019, Manuel Vilas (Barbastro, 1962) already amazed everyone by proclaiming himself planet finalist –along with Cercas, another surprise- with ‘Alegría’, a novel that followed the trail of his acclaimed ‘best-seller’ ‘Ordesa’. Now the Aragonese continues to climb editorial positions within the group that welcomed him with open arms after leaving Penguin Random House, winning the Nadal, the second prize in economic importance after the stratospheric Planet. This new edition of the award, number 79, has resumed the old tradition of the gala dinner at the Palace Hotel, which in the pandemic years was replaced by a press conference-presentation and has increased its endowment to 30,000 euros.
Old normality, therefore, to make the new winners known: Vilas, nothing in need of introduction, with his novel ‘Us‘. And regarding the Josep Pla, The other prize, this one in Catalan, which is also awarded at the Three Kings Day gala, has gone to its 55th call for the novel Gemma Ventura Farre, cultural journalist for the digital magazine ‘Catorze’, where he has taken his first narrative steps, although ‘La llei de l’hivern’ is his novel debut. Among the attendees, in addition to various authors linked to Planeta and the winner of last year’s edition, Inés Martín Rodrigo, were the mayoress of Barcelona, Ada Colau; the Minister of Culture Natàlia Garriga, the First Deputy Mayor, Jaume Collboni and the Minister of Culture, Jordi Martí.
address the absence
The theme of death and loss, of how mourning is managed, could be the common denominator of both novels. In the case of Vilas, who presented her novel with the pseudonym Emily Watson and the title ‘The Lover of the Wind’, the narrative follows Irene, a woman of our time who faces the death of her husband with whom she believed have the “most perfect marriage in the world”. In the way that the protagonist refuses to turn the page after that loss while taking a trip along the Spanish Mediterranean coast is the almond of the story. His is an unusual way of dealing with absences based on evocations and memories to reconstruct something similar to a life with the deceased.
It would seem that the fear that Vilas -who in addition to being a narrator has a long career as a poet- confessed last summer shortly after turning 60 and that materialized in the publication of his poetic anthology ‘Una sola vida’ is now fully controlled, at least as regards the craft of writing. This book was preceded by two others, ‘Roma’, in which Barbastro’s continued to explore the confessional literature that has given him such good recognition and ‘The kisses’, story located in the first months of confinement and that, like ‘Us’, is situated in the field of pure fiction. Like ‘The kisses’, too an unusual love story, the winning work of Nadal explores the field of feelings and is also, on this occasion in a more radical way, an exploration of loneliness. “This award is the fulfillment of a dream, an award that is part of the literature of this country, built by authors such as Carmen Laforet, Carmen Martín Gaite, Sanchez Ferlosio or Miguel Delibes, who join is beautiful,” Vilas told the receive the award, pleased.
Vilas’ link to Nadal also has other ramifications. In 2020, a few days after the pandemic was officially declared, her partner, the writer Ana Merino also won this award, which is why the rare circumstance occurs that both members of the couple have obtained it. Something, saving the distance and with a point of humor, only within the reach of Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem regarding the Oscars.
A lyrical Josep Pla
Gemma Ventura has presented thanks to ‘The law of winter’, that he hid under the title ‘Quan obri els ulls apareixerà’ and the pseudonym Laura Vallclara, a text full of evocative lyricism to which his readers are already accustomed in his articles in the magazine ‘Catorze’, a medium in which he also cultivates the in-depth interview. Also in this novel, as in Vilas’s, the theme of death and loss is central to the plot when presenting to a girl dedicated to watching over her grandfather in an invented rural setting while unleashing your memory and imagination to build a story. The novel explores precisely how those who are no longer with us can remain with us thanks to these stories, born from our needs to serve as comfort.
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An elementary school and music teacher in Terrassa, an unrepentant traveller, Ventura today in her thirties did not consider practicing as a journalist until she met the founder of ‘Catorze’, the writer Eva Piquer, on a ‘stage’ in Liverpool, and she encouraged her to participate in your magazine.
Like Nadal, Pla this year too has increased its endowment from 6,000 to 10,000 euros. Although in this case the winner was a novel, the prize rules are open to all types of genres, including non-fiction samples such as memoirs, newspapers or journalistic reports.