At the Etruscan Museum of Villa Giulia in Rome, last night took place the final of the LXXVIII edition of Strega Prize, which saw Donatella Di Pietrantonio triumph with L'età fragile, published by Einaudi. Behind Dario Voltolini with Invernale (La nave di Teseo), Chiara Valerio with Chi dice e chi tace (Sellerio), Raffaella Romagnolo with Aggiustare l'universo (Mondadori), Paolo Di Paolo with Romanzo senza umani (Feltrinelli), closes Tommaso Giartosio with Autobiogrammatica (Minimum Fax). Not the usual cinquina but a sestina: the regulation, in fact, obliges to add a book published by a medium-small publisher if the finalists are all published by large publishers.
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That books unfortunately do not move share points is known, as shown by the airing on Rai 3 at 23 and the poor publicity of the event. Geppi Cucciari, supported by Pino Strabioli, miraculously reconfirmed after the Sangiulianogate of the last edition, woke up those who were glued to the TV. More than a pebble from the shoe, it seems to have taken off a mountain, despite (or precisely because) the absence of institutions: fresh from a sparkling Taormina Book Festival, the Minister of Culture has in fact preferred to decline the invitation to the award ceremony of the Strega Prize.
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We have already wondered if the critics' awards still make sense in a sector, that of books, where the choices of the reader in bookstores are increasingly independent of a critical authority and less free from the logic of the best-selling or more unstable.
So let’s imagine playing the fantaStrega Prize, in which the regulation does not provide that the five finalists is the expression of a critical jury of experts, but the rankings of Italian authors of fiction best selling in Italy. And since today a good portion of the publishing market passes through Amazon, who would be the finalists according to the largest e-commerce platform in the world?
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#5 Roberto Vannacci with Il mondo al contrario
"The REDEEMER of COMMON SENSE"; "Book truth!": If this is the tenor of the comments, we are undoubtedly faced with a bestseller that, thanks to the media case, has led the anonymous general from the top of the army to the Strasbourg Chamber. For some a real revelation, so much so as to push them to create a cultural committee of the same name, intending, citing their site, "to give a follow-up to the contents of the twelve chapters of the book written by the general": the manifesto is already there, when the party form?
#4 Gianluca Gotto with Quando inizia la felicità
"Reassuring as a cup of tea on a cold rainy afternoon", conceptual and spiritual already from the cover, more than a book is a "collection of questions", a natural extension of his blog Mangia Vivi Viaggia. He questions himself about Buddhism, fatherhood; he gives advice to pursue happiness and where to look for it: for his readers, a non-trivial, perfect but above all wonderful book (he loses count of the times this comment appears under his book).
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#3 Matteo Bussola with La neve in fondo al mare
The central theme of this novel published by Einaudi is adolescent fragility and the relationship with parents. Theme, the fragility in general, not alien to the author from Verona: told from the female point of view in Il rosmarino non capisce l’inverno, from the male, unusual and devoid of stereotypes, in Un buon posto in cui fermarsi. Recommended by teachers and librarians as perfect reading for kids, according to comments on Amazon it’s impossible not to cry reading it.
#2 Milena Palminteri with Come l’arancio amaro
The debut of a Sicilian author, for a whole life hidden among the notary archives where she found and saved stories of the past. Set between the Twenties and Sixties of the twentieth century, this novel intertwines the stories of three women fighting for emancipation, "in a world that would choose for them". Published in June 2024, in just one month it has won the silver medal of this first edition of the fantaStrega.
#1 Donatella Di Pietrantonio with L’età fragile
Placed in the top 5 well before the award ceremony last night, the first place is also due to those who, this morning, has already put his novel in the cart Amazon. A story set in the author’s Abruzzo, the novel talks about roots and domestic violence, themes dear to Di Pietrantonio. Despite the prestigious award, a different opinion emerges from the comments, less brilliant than the other novels of the same writer.
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In the parallel universe of the fantaStrega, who knows if the result would have been different or in line with reality.
Illustration by Gloria Dozio - Acrimònia Studios
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