The list of winners of the international Mondello award has been chosen, which this year reaches its fiftieth edition. The jury chaired by Gianni Puglisi awarded the prize to Marco Cassardo with “Erariamo immortali” (Mondadori), Claudia Durastanti with “Missitalia” (La Nave di Teseo) and Giovanni Grasso with “The secret of lieutenant Giardina” (Rizzoli) for Italian Opera section. Antonio Franchini was awarded the special prize of the president of the jury with “The fire that you carry inside” (Marsilio). Deborah Gambetta was awarded the special prize for Literature with “Incompleteness. A story by Kurt Gödel” (Ponte alle Grazie). The Romanian Mircea Crescu was awarded the Foreign Author prize. The single judge Nicola Lagioia chose him. The three winning novels of the Opera Italiana section were subjected to the judgment of 120 qualified readers, indicated by 24 bookstores: their preferences will decide the overall winner, who will receive the SuperMondello prize. A jury of 130 students from 13 Sicilian schools will decide the winner of the Mondello Giovani award. Three students will receive the prize for the best motivation.
The awards ceremony will be held on November 15th at 5.30pm at the Teatro Biondo. It will be preceded on the same day by a meeting of the winners with the media and on 14 November by a discussion moderated by Paolo Proietti – «Mondello 50: ten decades of literature between memory and vision» – between Gianni Puglisi, the editorial director of the Book Fair , Annalena Benini, Roberto Deidier university professor and essayist, the writers Paolo Di Paolo, Davide Enia, Mario Fortunato and the literary critic Stefano Jossa. The Mondello Prize is promoted by the Sicilia Foundation on behalf of the Municipality of Palermo in collaboration with the Mondello Prize Foundation, the Andrea Biondo Foundation, the Circolo dei Readers Foundation, the Turin International Book Fair and, from this year, with the Treccani Encyclopedia Institute.