Emmanuel Carrere, with the novel ‘v13‘ (Adelphi), wins the tenth edition of the European Witch Prize, which turns 10 and renews the collaboration with the Turin International Book Fair. Once again this year, the selected authors and authors presented their respective competing books at the Book Fair, each in an individual meeting, between Friday 19 and Sunday 21 May.
The interview
Emmanuel Carrère: “Russians don’t know democracy, they live in a parallel universe”
Francesca Pellas
“Up until a year ago, for me, referring to Europe could have something rhetorical, now it is something urgent” commented Emmanuel Carrere immediately after the proclamation. The recognition was also awarded to Francesco Bergamasco, translator of the winning book, «as a tangible sign of the importance of translations as a tool for dialogue and knowledge». And Carrere thanked Bergamasco: «We write but translators are important because they allow us to meet». «A little while ago I had a wonderful meeting in which I was able to talk about technicalities with the translators in the room. It would be nice to have a world in which one can concentrate on semicolons», he had already said before the award ceremony in an interview with Eva Giovannin.
Record sales at the Book Fair: passed 2022, on the podium Murgia, Postorino, Recalcati
diego mill
The writer spoke about the book V13, a breaking latest news of the trial of the Bataclan bombers. «Usually those who are interested in news and trials are more interested in the criminals than in the victims. Here it is the other way around. We usually feel sorry for the victims. Among the victims, survivors or family members who have lost their wife or child or a loved one, I found myself in front of representations of very strong, magnificent human experiences. This process has been terrible, but there have been very beautiful moments». Carrere said that “the trial went really well, the defendants were respected, the rules were followed”.
The prize is awarded every year by a jury made up of 24 Italian writers and writers winners and finalists of the Strega Prize. During the awards ceremony at the Readers’ Club, conducted by the journalist Eva Giovannini, in addition to the five finalist authors, Giovanni Solimine and Stefano Petrocchi, respectively president and director of the Bellonci Foundation, Gilberto Borghi, external relations manager of BPER Banca, offers the prize for translation, and Giulio Biino and Elena Lowenthal, respectively president and director of the Circolo dei Lettori of Turin.
“I have always believed that we are the books we read. And that our Europe, which every day we try to make stronger and freer – said Pina Picierno, vice president of the European Parliament, in a message – arises from the roots of a long thinking that was formed after the Second World War and that it would not have been possible without the idea of a continent that becomes a country, of a dream that becomes the living material of history, in the European consciousness without the intellectuals, writers and poets making fruitful. Europe has many founding mothers, many founding fathers and, wrongly, too often those who in the darkest moments continued to make literature are excluded, to make literature a driving force for the future and for democracy”. Emmanuel Carrère obtained 11 votes out of a total of 24 cast by the jury made up as usual of winners and finalists of the Premio Strega: Silvia Avallone, Andrea Bajani, Marco Balzano, Giuseppe Catozzella, Benedetta Cibrario, Antonella Cilento, Mario Desiati, Paolo Di Paolo, Claudia Durastanti, Fabio Genovesi, Helena Janeczek, Nicola Lagioia, Lia Levi, Melania G. Mazzucco, Daniele Mencarelli, Marco Missiroli, Matteo Nucci, Valeria Parrella, Sandra Petrignani, Antonio Scurati, Elena Stancanelli, Domenico Starnone, Nadia Terranova and Sandro Veronese.