There are 79 fiction books proposed by the Amici della Domenica jury for the eightieth anniversary edition of the Premio Strega which for the first time will have the Piazza del Campidoglio in Rome as the setting for the final on 8 July. In line with recent years, the number of titles presented is always a record even if this year it was just under 80: in 2025 there were 81, in 2024 there were 82 and in 2023 there were 80. The dozen, which will be announced on 1 April at the Chamber of Commerce of Rome, in the Sala del Tempio di Vibia Sabina and Adriano, will be selected by the steering committee composed of Pietro Abate, Giuseppe D’Avino, Valeria Della Valle, Alberto Foschini, Paolo Giordano, Dacia Maraini, Melania G. Mazzucco, Gabriele Pedullà, Stefano Petrocchi, Marino Sinibaldi and Giovanni Solimine. The five will be chosen on June 3rd at the Roman Theater of Benevento.
And this year among the proposals there are important novels for Calabria and Sicily
The successful narrative debut of Anna Mallamo from Reggio Calabria, journalist of the Gazzetta, «In the dark I see it» (Einaudi), already winner of the SuperMondello Prize, of the Arena di Acri Prize, finalist for the Premio Berto 2025 and finalist for Italy at the Festival du Premier Roman of Chambéry, was proposed by Marina Valensise, who in the motivation speaks of «a powerful debut novel full of surprises», «of an evocative language, where the use of dialect is not in a vindictive-identity key, but serves to corroborate the grip on human reality which is the driving force of the story. The same detachment is perceived in the description of Reggio Calabria, a city that has lost its splendor, clinging to the ruins of the past, with the Greek walls, the rubble of the earthquake, the houses of the dead. No indulgence in lyricism, but a hard look that ends up making us love it as the substratum of a thousand-year-old civilization that resists.”
Another powerful Calabrian debut – «between dystopian nightmare and magical realism» – is that of Saverio Gangemi, from Melicucco in Reggio, whose «Calùra» (Rubbettino), Special Mention of the Jury at the 37th Calvino Prize, was proposed by Massimo Onofri, who wrote: «The anthropological rooting in a small homeland is combined with the feeling of a globalized present over which the sense of an apocalypse looms not just environmental.”
For Sicily, there is the brand new novel by Maria Attanasio, poet and storyteller from Caltagirone, «La rosa inversa» (Sellerio), proposed by Ottavia Piccolo, which speaks of «a device of historical and philosophical thought that peers into the past and thinks about the present, on the lasting war between innovators and nostalgics, excluded and privileged, pragmatists and dreamers». The authentic figure of a formidable writer, who has always moved between lyric and prose, between past and present with the strength of invention.
Sicilian, from Catania, is also Massimo Maugeri, the animator of the very popular blog «Letteratitudine», whose latest novel «Quel che fa dell’amore» (La nave di Teseo), a singular intertwining, at a high ethical temperature, between the love of music and the theme of civil rights and the fight against racism, was proposed by Giorgio Nisini, who defines it «a rare example of an Italian music novel that is charged with a particular engagé strength, while maintaining a stylistic harmony and a speed of writing that confirm Maugeri’s natural narrative skills”.
Then there is the strong prose of Orazio Labbate, from Butera, with «Chianafera» (NN Editore), proposed by Alberto Casadei, «a “Sicilian Gothic” capable of transfiguring the dust of the provinces into a metaphysical vision. The narrative – a mythological, original autobiography -, suspended between the shadows of Butera and the Catena Asylum, is not just a descent into madness, but a rite of deconstruction of identity.”
And Anna Voltaggio from Palermo also appears, with «The saint of others» (Neri Pozza), proposed by Diego De Silva: «A novel of disappearances and births, held together by a measured and wise sense of the sacred.»
Always complicated, but this time more than usual, identifying who could enter the twelve. Michele Mari is certainly in pole position with «The stone guests» (Einaudi) proposed by Vittorio Lingiardi, who speaks of it as «a black novel that makes fun of the passing of time. A comic and choral book that Carlo Emilio Gadda would have liked.” But Marcello Fois is also among the favorites with the beautiful «L’immense distraction» (Einaudi), proposed by Helena Janeczek. And then Matteo Nucci with «Plato. A love story» (Feltrinelli), proposed by Giancarlo De Cataldo; Bianca Pitzorno with «La sonnambula» (Bompiani), proposed by Roberta Mazzanti; Leonardo Colombati with «Non vi Sara Più Notte» (Mondadori), proposed by Alessandro Piperno; Edith Bruck with «The German Friend» (The Ship of Theseus), proposed by Aldo Cazzullo; Francesco Pecoraro with «The end of the world» (Ponte alle Grazie), proposed by Gianluigi Simonetti; Mauro Covacich with «Lina and the stone» (The ship of Theseus), proposed by Edoardo Nesi; Christian Raimo with «The invention of color» (The ship of Theseus); Laura Pariani with «Primamà» (The ship of Theseus) and Gaja Cenciarelli with «The revolutionary and the teacher» (Marsilio)
There are many titles from the same publisher with La nave di Teseo in first place with 6 books followed by Einaudi and Mondadori with 5 titles each. Feltrinelli won two titles in 2025 with «L’anniversario» by Andrea Bajani. Many small and medium-sized publishing houses are participating in the Award for the first time: Rai Libri with «No grace. Gramsci and Pertini, a story of imprisonment and resistance” by Cosimo Damiano Damato, proposed by Raffaele Nigro, and Gramma Feltrinelli with two titles including that of debutant Lavinia Bianca with “Potential Life”, proposed by Fulvio Abbate.