Two kids fleeing the war in the Balkans. A little girl immobilized by a brain disease. A little orphan who, grown up, investigates the choice of her natural mother, who abandoned her and then committed suicide. A former child from Turin who retraces all the houses of his life to finally be able to tell the story of his beloved father’s illness, depression, which so marked his life and that of the whole family. And finally the story of a man who knows half the world for his book closest to children, for his Little Prince dreamer: Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Somehow they all revolve around children, more or less difficult or painful stories of growing up, the five finalist books of the Strega Prize 2023.
To announce them, Wednesday 7 June, in the frame of the Roman Theater of Benevento, calling the authors, the writer, to the stage Mario Ten seat president and winner of the last edition. The shortlist of five for the 77th edition of Strega was unveiled live on RaiPlay. And here they are, in order of votes, the protagonists of the five of the competition created by Maria Bellonci in 1947.
The first two are Rosella Postorino and Ada d’Adamo, con I was just loving you (Feltrinelli) e Come d’aria (Elliot), who received 217 and 199 votes, respectively. The other three titles in the final are: Where you didn’t take me (Einaudi) by Maria Grazia Calandrone (183 votes, 34 less than the first in the list); The night crossing (The Ship of Theseus) by Andrew Canobbio (175 votes) and Steal the night (Mondadori) of Romana Petri (167 votes), translator and literary critic already twice a finalist at the Strega (in 1998 with Alle Case Comein 2013 with Children of the same father). All decided by 596 voters out of 660, from the 400 Amici della Domenica to the 220 Italian and foreign scholars, translators and intellectuals, to the 20 strong readers and 20 collective votes of schools, universities and reading groups; as well as by the boys of Strega Giovani.
A sensitive gap, the one between the two authors in the lead, but not unbridgeable in view of a choice – that of the final on 6 July in Rome, and the proclamation in the courtyard of the National Etruscan Museum — which could be fought given the wave of emotion that already accompanied d’Adamo’s victory at Strega Giovani, proclaimed on Tuesday 6 June in the Mann Auditorium in Naples. The writer passed away on April 1st at the age of only 55, and only two days after the announcement of the selection of Come d’aria for the dozen semifinalists. Her is a novel that touches the heart, a memoir, a book that nails you in your chair, starring a fifty-year-old former dancer who, discovered she has cancer, tells her disabled daughter the story of their deep bond. D’Adamo wrote an openly autobiographical book: she herself had a daughter who was severely disabled from birth. The writer’s husband is excited Alfredo Favi, who told Strega Giovani that he was «happy with this award for Ada, but angry because she is no longer here to receive it».
“It was a hard-fought challenge,” he says Melania G. Mazzucco, president of the Steering Committee of the Strega Prize — but I think that’s not all. The final? It’s all to be decided because the challengers are all worthy. I would like to point out that in the end there are always surprises. And that this is a year in which emotion will count a lot in the analysis of beautiful and profound works».
They remain excluded, among the others who arrived in dozens, Cassandra in Mogadishu (Bompiani) of Igiaba Scego, that many hoped for in the final; La Sibilla, life of Joyce Lussu (Laterza) of Silvia Ballestra;Railways of Mexico Of Gian Marco Griffi (Laurana), which had scored an exploit from 200 copies booked to 30,000 sold.
Also out are the books by Neri Pozza — A little unhappinessdebut of Carmen Green — and Marsilio — the touching Back from the woodsOf Maddalena Vaglio Tanet — as well as Bollati Boringhieri with The White Continent by Andrea Tarabbia. Bompiani loses along the way, in addition to Scego, Vincenzo Latronico with his fourth novel, The perfections.
The two novels in the lead for votes strike, in different ways, for the crudeness of the reality of the protagonists: “I came across the story of these children, who had been taken to Italy during the siege of Sarajevo – says Postorino -. Their journey struck me: Italy in solidarity welcomed them. On the other hand, however, to save themselves they lost everything they had». Then he explains: «I am interested in scarred childhoods, children who have suffered an original damage». And he reveals: this book is “the last piece of a reflection on motherhood: more than bringing children into the world, I’m interested in the care of those who are already there”.
In a dialogue in breaking latest news, last March when the disease already made her appear scarred, yet vital, Ada d’Adamo – born in Ortona (Chieti), graduated in Rome in Performing Arts and graduated from the National Academy of Dance – explained that in Come d’ariaalready a publishing success, had told his story, emphasizing: «I wanted to give a sense of what total bewilderment can be, absolute, that you live in the moment of a diagnosis like that of my daughter, a diagnosis of a malformation that came when you were convinced you had done everything to avoid it”. And she had revealed: «When I had to face the news of a metastasis from breast cancer, it upset me: Daria’s name was no longer on the diagnoses, but mine. And I was afraid that this thing would push us apart ». It was not so. Until the end. “And in the end I understood that in reality this experience was something that could bring us closer together, that experiencing in different ways what it means to be fragile, it brought us together more”.