The Steering Committee of the Premio Strega, met by videoconference, has chosen the twelve candidates for the 2021 edition among the 62 fiction titles proposed by the Sunday friends.
These are the twelve books selected: Andrea Bajani, The book of houses (Feltrinelli), proposed by Concita De Gregorio; Edith Bruck, The lost bread (The ship of Theseus), proposed by Furio Colombo; Maria Grazia Calandrone, Shine like life (Ponte alle Grazie), proposed by Franco Buffoni; Giulia Caminito, The lake water is never sweet (Bompiani), proposed by Giuseppe Montesano; Teresa Ciabatti, It looked like beauty (Mondadori), proposed by Sandro Veronesi; Donatella Di Pietrantonio, Borgo Sud (Einaudi), proposed by Nadia Fusini; Lisa Ginzburg, The pace (Ponte alle Grazie), proposed by Nadia Terranova; Giulio Mozzi, The repetitions (Marsilio), proposed by Pietro Gibellini; Daniele Petruccioli, The home of the mothers (TerraRossa), proposed by Elena Stancanelli; Emanuele Trevi, Two lives (Neri Pozza), proposed by Francesco Piccolo; Alice Urciuolo, Adoration (66thand2nd), proposed by Daniele Mencarelli; Roberto Venturini, The year that was Christmas twice in Rome (Sem), proposed by Maria Pia Ammirati.
The candidate books will be read and voted by a jury made up of 660 entitled candidates. To the votes of the Friends of Sunday are added those expressed by scholars, translators and enthusiasts of our language and literature selected by the Italian cultural institutes abroad, strong readers chosen by independent libraries distributed throughout Italy, collective votes expressed by schools, universities and reading groups, including the circles set up by the Libraries of Rome. The five will be voted on 10 June. The election of the winner will be Thursday 8 July.