At the opening of the 59th edition, a tribute to the writer Daniele Del Giudice, who passed away last Thursday. The book (Bompiani) was also a finalist for the Strega
Fragile to a recent health problem, he wears red shoes in honor of the women. He dedicates the Prize to his publishing house (Bompiani), to the literary agent, to female readers. “To women and their ability to read and write in every part of the world”.
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Giulia Caminito, 33, is the winner of the 59th edition of the Campiello Prize with the novel The lake water is never sweet. It was placed in fourth place in the ranking of the Jury of Literature. Surprise victory? No, if we consider that it has often happened, during the editions of the Venetian Industrialists’ Award, that the verdict was overturned by the Popular Jury.
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The applause goes to the writer and to the whole female planet. Thus ended the final of the literary event in Venice which took place on Saturday 4 September in an unusual place. It is not the “bonbonnière” of the Teatro La Fenice, the place chosen for years for the final evening of the Campiello Prize; and not even the monumental Piazza San Marco where in 2020 (due to the pandemic) a large space was sought under the sky. In 2021 the scene is peripheral but no less suggestive, the Arsenal. A stage, eight hundred guests, an exceptional musician and songwriter, Lodo Guenzi, the presenter Andrea Delogu (live broadcast on Rai 5).
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It begins after sunset in the lagoon, with a moment of emotion: the memory of Daniele Del Giudice, Campiello Lifetime Achievement Award 2021, who passed away last Thursday. The writer is portrayed in a short film where he is in Venice, which was his adopted city. To remember him there is Ernesto Franco, editorial director of the casas editrice Einaudi, his close friend. Among the applause, the motivation for the award to the deceased novelist is read.
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Then, we get to the heart, with the presentation of the five finalists, identified with a letter of the alphabet, in order to capture the essence of their novels. To Paolo Nori (It still bleeds. The Incredible Life of Fyodor M. Dostoevsky, Mondadori) touches the letter P as passion. To Carmen Pellegrino (The happiness of others, The ship of Theseus) A as abscission. To Andrea Bajani (The book of the houses, Feltrinelli), S as space. To Paolo Malaguti (If the water laughs, Einaudi) P as a passage. To Giulia Caminito (The lake water is never sweet, Bompiani) D as a definition.
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The last to tell is the first in the final standings. The People’s Jury, in fact, chose her and her novel, assigning it 99 votes. Followed by Malaguti (80), Nori (37), Pellegrino (36), Bajani (18). In all, 270 jurors voted.
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The often engaging plot of Caminito’s novel narrates the story of a failed ransom by Gaia (child and then adolescent), struggling with her very hard and demanding mother. Disaster family and she who dreams of accessing the consumption of rich peers. Rome and a village on Lake Bracciano are the setting for the novel. «There is also a bit of myself – admits the author – even if it is not an autobiographical work. There is the suspended generation of the 2000s ».
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The preview of the grand final began on Saturday morning, in the meeting room of the Fontego dei Tedeschi, on the top floor of the chic department store a stone’s throw from the Rialto Bridge, where Giancarlo Leone presented authors and guests. In the front row the president of the Campiello Foundation (and of the Venetian Industrialists) Enrico Carraro and the president of the Jury of Literature of the 59th edition, Walter Veltroni. Happy with this Venetian experience, Veltroni underlines three merits of the Award: “The autonomy and transparency, first of all: the double value and therefore the double judgment of the Juries, the technical one in the choice of the five finalists, and the popular vote for the winner. In the end, the meeting point of quality and legibility of the works ». The president remembers Daniele Del Giudice, Campiello Lifetime Achievement Award 2021, who passed away in recent days. “Swallowed by the disease that haunted him for years. A great. I loved him very much. The prize is not to memory but to his life, to what he has given, in particular to Venice », underlines Veltroni.
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But it is time to announce the winner of the Campiello Giovani, an important section of the Prize, now in its 26th edition. Since 1996, more than eight thousand students have participated. This year the podium is for an eighteen year old girl from Vigevano (Pavia) competing with the story Portrait of Paris. Is called Alice Scalas Bianco, attended classical high school and will now study modern literature. Aspire to a job in publishing. Excited, she goes to the microphone and introduces herself in a few words, explaining that “she has locked herself in the house all the time necessary to write her story”. The jury’s motivation: «The text has the quality of combining ingenuity and intelligence, dispersion and flashes of ironic clarity in a single gesture. The author has tried to resist the inevitably winning clichés with the sweetness of a story that is read to the end ».
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The Opera Prima prize goes to Daniela Gambaro
Ten almost true stories (Nutriments). The Literary Jury led by Veltroni is made up of Federico Bertoni, Daniela Brogi, Silvia Calandrelli, Edoardo Camurri, Chiara Fenoglio, Luigi Matt, Ermanno Paccagnini, Lorenzo Tomasin, Roberto Vecchioni, Emanuele Zinato.
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September 4, 2021 (change September 4, 2021 | 23:07)
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