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“The Witch? The truth is that the jurors now read and choose the most loved novel “

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The Witch of the many surprises. From the stars to the stables: it was the favorite of the eve, Teresa Ciabatti with her novel “Seemed beauty”. Excluded from the shortlist of finalists, the winner in pectore even ranked second among the excluded and sank her publisher, Mondadori, triumphant for years on the stage of the Roman prize, or in the ranks of finalists. Now, in first place out of five, instead, Emanuele Trevi has arrived with “Two lives” published by Neri Pozza, a publisher never crowned at the Nymphaeum. A revolution. Professor Giovanni Solimine, a well-known scholar of the publishing world and president of the Bellonci Foundation, which manages the Strega prize, has no doubts about this.

Professor Solimine, does the Capitoline certamen change skin and style?

“For years it has been said that the Strega was a prize controlled by the major publishers and very predictable. But now that we are getting out of the way, there is great confusion. The truth is that the jurors read and choose the most loved novel ».

Stories of problematic adolescence are also told by Caminito in “The water of the lake is never sweet” (Bompiani): it is in the five of Campiello and Strega. How do you explain it?

«In the youthful story of Caminito, which takes place near Lake Bracciano, it seems to me that there are elements of shock that are missing in Ciabatti’s novel. Two other books, that of Di Pietrantonio ‘Borgo Sud’ (Einaudi) and that of Lisa Ginzburg ‘Cara pace’ (Ponte alle Grazie) who ranked ahead of the excluded, are united by the fact that they have very similar stories: both tell stories of two sisters united by an indissoluble bond. Di Pietrantonio develops a sequel to her previous novel ‘L’arminuta’ which was a great success ».

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Will Donatella Di Pietrantonio be the winner? Mondadori is out of the competition. Lo Struzzo, the publisher of Di Pietrantonio, will benefit from the full support of Segrate. On Trevi’s work the opponents have dropped the accusation of self-plagiarism. What do you think?

«The group of 660 jurors at the Strega is made up of many new realities, young people, 240 readers who are abroad, traditional voters and so on. It is not certain that Trevi first in the five will also be first at the Ninfeo. As for self-plagiarism, or rather the presence in the competing books of previously published stories or passages, it is not a problem: Moravia and Bassani have won the Strega with texts that have already been partially released and then reunited in a new product ».

Sometimes the best books of a literary season have competed for the Strega. Could you say this for 2021?

“Certainly for the first selection of the twelve competitors, which unfortunately Antonio Pennacchi and Nicola La Gioia did not want to return to”.

But from which many good writers were excluded, such as Aurelio Picca?

“It used to take two presenters for the Witch. Now only one. Bompiani, who published Picca, has agreed to bring many authors to the field. All publishers do it. And then it’s up to the steering committee to take responsibility for the selection. That’s okay. The weight of the publishers in the Strega has significantly decreased. In Italy today it has gone from 60,000 to 80,000 volumes published every year. Small publishers make space for themselves on social media or on TV. The Strega prize has adapted to the changes in the once very closed literary society. It will be a very unpredictable final, which will amaze us ».

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