Strega Award, the winner tonight: the candidates. Favorite Desiati

Strega Award 2022: the Italian literary Oscar

The Witch can be considered theItalian literary Oscar without detracting from the other awards in the sector. For instance the Campiello which, temporally, arrives immediately after the Witch, in September, but in the jury, to judge the five finalists chosen by a circle of critics, there are three hundred common readers from different social backgrounds.

Quite different from the Witch who instead in the jury it brings together the elite of contemporary literature. The “hard core” is represented by Sunday friends (so called because they met on Sundays), group of intellectuals (today they have become four hundred) that since 1947 (Campiello was born in ’62) comes together to identify the best minds and best pens of the moment. There Bellonci Foundation which today signs the event collects the legacy of the founders Maria Bellonci and Guido Alberti, owner of the manufacturer of the Strega liqueur (which inspired the name of the award).

To the votes of the Friends of Sunday, over time, others have been added, always well selected: 220 come from selected Italian and foreign scholars, translators and intellectuals, others from Italian cultural institutes abroad, strong readersthen there are the collective votes expressed by schools, universities and reading groups, including the circles of the Libraries of Rome. In all there are 660 those entitled to vote (this year the votes cast were 593). Perhaps not very few, certainly “heavy”.

With a longer history than the Witch, there is only the Bagutta Award, founded in 1926, which, however, is held in winter and has less impact on sales. According to some studies, the Witch would be able to sales even increased by five hundred percent (source Sole 24 Ore).

For the first time at the Premio Strega 7 finalists instead of 5

In the shortlist – Mario Desiati, Claudio Persanti, Marco Amerighi, Veronica Raimo, Fabio Bacà, Alessandra Carati and Veronica Galletta – this year there are important news. First of all there is no name “strong”, as soon as you hear it, you already know who it is (in the past editions, for example, the winners were Sandro Veronesi, Antonio Scurati, Nicola Lagioia, Francesco Piccolo, names that easily leave the world of writers to forcefully enter that of the general public).

Then for the first time ever the finalists are seven instead of the usual five (in 2020, however, there were six). It happened because the fifth place was split ex aequo between two writers. In addition, as per regulation, since there was no one in the ranking of the top five, space has been made for a book published by a small to medium-sized publisher.

Mario Desiati with Spatriate favorite for the win

The most voted by the jury (244 votes), therefore also the one considered favored for the victory, is Mario Desiati, 45 years. Long experience in publishing houses, author of several novels and poems, a native of the Itria Valley in Puglia (Martina Franca), he lives in Rome, but he also lived in Berlin and considers himself a bit “landless”. And he tells a lot about himself the novel with which he competes, Spatriate (Einaudi), which tells the story of two landless boys who run away between London, Milan, Berlin.

But the book also talks about fluidity of relationships and love. “Spatriato”, explained Desiati, “means expatriate, but it is also one way quick to say that a person is a voice out of the chorus, perhaps he is freer, like the characters in this novel. In Martina Franca they called me an expatriate many times, because I have not “built” a family, it is not clear exactly what I do, they do not know exactly where I live ».

Claudio Piersanti with That damned Vronsky

Second (178 votes) is Claudio Piersanti68, with That damned Vronsky (Rizzoli). Author of countless books, in this he tells of one normal couple, he a typographer left without a job, she is a secretary passionate about gardening, in which he remains bewildered when he is dumped by his wife. And what does it do? Start reading Anna Karenina.

Marco Amerighi with Stray

Third (175 votes), Marco Amerighi40 years old, with Stray (Bollati Boringhieri) in which he speaks of young people of the new millennium, chaotic, wanderers, even strays, who light up with friendship and love from Pisa to Madrid. This is her second novel. With the first, Our hours are numbered (Mondadori, 2018) won the Bagutta Opera Prima Prize.

Veronica Raimo with Nothing true

Fourth (169 votes) Veronica Raimo44 years old, with Nothing true (Einaudi), ironic and light-hearted story of a “defective but affectionate” family. Raimo he has already won the Strega Giovani Prizethat is, among the finalists, his book was the most voted by a jury of girls and boys between 16 and 18 years of over one hundred upper secondary schools in Italy and abroad (Berlin, Brussels, Paris).

Fabio Bacà with Nova and Alessandra Carati with And then we’ll be safe

Fifths, ex aequo (168 votes) Fabio Bacà with Nova (Adelphi) e Alessandra Carati with And then we’ll be safe (Mondadori). Bacà, 50, is on his second novel later Cosmic benevolence always with Adelphi. With an overwhelming mix between science and humortells the story of a neurosurgeon struggling with the noises of life and his brainin the enterprise of understanding each other and controlling anger.

Carati faces the theme of war by telling the events of a family fleeing the conflict in the former Yugoslavia. Unintentionally topical with the invasion of Ukraine.

Veronica Galletta with Nina on the embankment

Seventh (103 votes) Veronica Galletta50, with Nina on the embankment (Minimum Fax) in which he transposed his past as a hydraulic engineer, describing the companies of a woman engineer, precisely, in a construction site in the Po Valley. In 2020 his first novel The Norman Islands she was awarded the Campiello Opera Prima Prize.

At the Strega “Monopoly” Mondadori award?

In this shortlist of finalists, the most attentive have noted that four books are published by the first Italian publishing group, Mondadori. In fact, Einaudi (which publishes De Siati and Raimo) and Rizzoli (which publishes Piersanti) belong to this group. With the book of Caratipublished by Mondadori, make four.

The problem of concentrating editorial power in a publishing house has been known for some time. It is discussed. It will continue to be discussed. Meanwhile, others, always among the most attentive, imagine there may be embarrassment in the Einaudi house due to the presence of two of its finalists. Who knows, maybe there is only double the chance of increasing sales.

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