Strega Prize 2024, here is the sixth

And the fifth, or rather the sixth, is served. Live on RaiPlay, from the Roman Theater of Benevento, the six finalist writers for the 2024 Strega Prize were announced. There are six finalist novels, because the regulation states that in the final there must be at least one novel published by a medium-sized publishing house small. Yesterday the Strega Giovani Award had already been awarded The fragile age by Donatella Di Pietrantonio with 138 preferences, ahead of Antonella Lattanzi, author of Things that aren’t told (Einaudi), with 72 votes, and Chiara Valerio, author of Who says and who is silent (Sellerio), with 67 votes. From today the race is narrowed down to six finalists, who will compete for the prize that last year went surprisingly to Ada D’Adamowhich disappeared a few months before the proclamation, with Like airpublished by Elliott.

These are the six finalists of the 2024 Strega award:

• Paolo Di Paolo, Novel without humans (Feltrinelli), proposed by Gianni Amelio, with 195 votes.
• Donatella Di Pietrantonio, The fragile age (Einaudi), proposed by Vittorio Lingiardi, with 248 votes.
• Tommaso Giartosio, Autobiogrammatics (minimum fax), proposed by Emanuele Trevi, with 126 votes.
• Raffaella Romagnolo, Fixing the universe (Mondadori), proposed by Lia Levi, with 193 votes.
• Chiara Valerio, Who says and who is silent (Sellerio), proposed by Matteo Motolese, with 213 votes.
• Dario Voltolini, Winter (The ship of Theseus), proposed by Sandro Veronesi, with 243 votes.

What do the six finalist books have in common? A very contemporary contamination, as explained by the president of the seat and of the Award Management Committee, Melania Mazzucco: «The novel as we understood it 30 years ago represents only a part of contemporary narrative. The narratives are contaminated with memoirs, non-fiction, journalism, investigations, biographies and autobiographies.” And again: «It’s a popular trend. At this moment much more value is given to a type of writing that deals with reality, with the narrator’s ego guiding the reader inside the book.”

All that remains is to wait for the winner to be announced on July 4th, at the ceremony to be held in the garden of the National Etruscan Museum of Villa Giulia. The final will be broadcast live on Rai3 and this year the live counting of the last one hundred votes cast by the jury will also be reinstated.