Ultimately, the awarding of the 2024 Strega Prize should be a two-way affair. On the one hand The fragile age of Donatella Di Pietrantonio, for many the “heralded” winner of the highest Italian literary prize; the other Who speaks and who remains silent? by Chiara Valerio. In the ranking which demarcated the six finalists, the author from Abruzzo took first place with 248 votes, the writer from Scauri – a hamlet in Lazio where his novel takes place – took third place, with 213 preferences. However, I think that the final victory is deserved by those who “placed” themselves in the middle, with 243 votes: Winter by Dario Voltolini.
The three most voted works on June 5 (when the magnificent 6 were announced at the Roman Theatre of Benevento) are more or less short: 192 pages per The fragile age288 par Who speaks and who remains silent? (but in Sellerio’s ‘cute’ format), 144 for Winter (in an equally super compact edition of The Ship of Theseus). Tight novels, with narratives that leave no room for obstacles or downtime. Each of the three works stands out in its own way: Di Pietrantonio has succeeded in creating a framework on which memory, loneliness and pain travel on interconnected tracks; a novel that finds its greatness in the complex investigation into the constant fragility in the lives of parents, children, anyone. Ambiguity, desire, questions that require answers are the cornerstones of Chiara Valerio’s latest work, a kind of detective novel of its own kindfrom which emerges a female character such as has not been seen on the Italian literary scene for a long time. A character who seems to have clear references, that of Vittoria. A character of size, “mythological” in her own way, mysterious and powerful, a fulcrum towards which all the threads of the story converge. These are two convincing works that have something to say. But I repeat, personal opinion, Winter he has an advantage.
I go too far, and by going too far I repeat the words, I don’t want them, of Sandro Veronesi (winner of the Premio Strega 2020 with The Hummingbird) which he proposed as a Sunday Friend Winter: “There are books that are so beautiful that they amaze. What do they have more than others? Perhaps the author has already written other very beautiful books, he is a well-known and appreciated figure, his strengths are known and the quality of his writing should not surprise anyone: however, in these books, it surprises , that’s surprising.” Here is, Winter by Voltolini, although small and quick, it is a surprising novel.
Winter This is the story of Gino Voltolini, the author’s father. A butcher by profession, he spends his days separating muscles, removing organs and bones. And then he sells them to customers at the Porta Palazzo market in Turin. A job like so many others, repetitive and with no room for variations on the theme, but which is a “ferryman between the two banks of the flesh”, the living and the dead. By a stroke of fate, Gino contracts a bacteria at work. It starts with an infection, continues with exhaustion, a wild diagnosis, health protocols, visits to clinics abroad. Dario, the son, is only twenty years old, he sees his father deteriorate in front of him and understands the proximity of his farewell.
Voltolini’s is a rhythmic, cadenced novel, with a narrative speed that does not disturb, quite the contrary. The punctuation and sometimes even its almost total absence, except at the end of the sentence, increase the drama, make the work a centrifuge of emotions, sharpen perception, increase the disorientation at the beginning of the story. Winter is a novel of cuts, splits, flesh, blood and pain. It’s a crescendo of emotions that jam together in the way the knife cuts and insinuates itself into flesh. You descend into the depths of the human soul, you experience what you may have never experienced before, but you nevertheless manage to grasp the terrible drama. Winter It is a novel without dialogue – it does not need it – but it engages with the reader like few others.
For completeness, the other three novels vying for victory are Novel without humans by Paolo by Paolo (Feltrinelli) Repair the universe by Raffaella Romagnolo (Mondadori) and Autobiogrammatic par Tommaso Giartrosio (fax minimum).
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