Andrea Bazzanini, The Last Season (Oligo); Fiammetta Palpati, The House of the White Orphans (Laurana Editore); Giulio Spagnol, Charlie Cannonball (Mondadori); Michele Ruol, Inventory of What Remains After the Earth Burns (TerraRossa); Samuele Cornalba, Bagai (Einaudi). These are the five finalists of the XXXI edition of the “Giuseppe Berto” Literary Prize, one of the most prestigious awards in our country for first published narrative works.
The winning work will be revealed during the awards ceremony that will take place on September 7th in Capo Vaticano (Ricadi, VV), in the Calabrian estate overlooking the Costa degli Dei chosen by Giuseppe Berto, since the end of the 50s, as a place of the soul and of the “buen retiro”, within the scope of a public event conducted by the journalist Giancarlo Loquenzi and set, this year, within the scope of the Festival “Estate a Casa Berto” (5 – 8 September) also dedicated to the name and memory of the author of “Il Male oscuro” and “La Gloria”.
As per tradition, the Award maintains its prerogative in alternating regularly between Veneto and Calabria: between Mogliano Veneto (TV) – where Berto was born and where De Cesare De Michelis founded it in 1988 – and Capo Vaticano (VV), where the writer lived most of his life and where he rests today. His daughter Antonia, guardian of her father’s literary art, will be the godmother of the award ceremony.
The finalist works were selected by the new jury of the Prize chaired by the writer and literary critic Emanuele Trevi, Strega Prize 2021 and one of the greatest experts on Berto’s work and also composed of Silvia Avallone, writer and poet; Luigi Mascheroni, journalist; Elena Stancanelli, author, who, on her debut, won the Berto Prize 1998 with the novel “Benzina”, later made into a film; and Emanuele Zinato, already a juror of the Berto Prize as well as a member of the Jury of Literature of the Campiello Prize.
“The selected works are able to provoke profound reflections on crucial aspects of the human condition, albeit with different sensibilities and narrative methods – commented the president of the jury Emanuele Trevi, who will also be present at the awards ceremony -. From the central role of the home and the family, to the difficulties related to working life and the impact of industrialization on the environment, without neglecting the needs of the new generations, the five finalists have narrated today with expressive originality and a writing technique rich in visual images and stylistic freshness”.
The Award is organized by the Giuseppe Berto Cultural Association, in collaboration with the Municipality of Ricadi (VV) and the Municipality of Mogliano Veneto (TV) and thanks to the contribution of the sponsor Distillerie Caffo.