Veronica Raimo and Domenico Starnone on the International Booker Prize longlist

In the longlist ofInternational Booker Prize there are two Italian novels: Nothing true Of Veronica Raimo (Einaudi, 2022), translated into English by Leah Janeczko and published under the title Lost on me (Virago) and Via Gemito Of Domenico Starnone (Feltrinelli, 2001), translated by Oonagh Stransky with the title The House on Via Gemito (Europa Editions).

It is the first time that two Italian novels have been selected at the same time in the longlist of the most important literature prize translated into English. The first time an Italian entered the International Booker Prize was in 2016 with Story of the lost little girl Of Elena Ferrante (also published by Europa Editions, the English-language publishing house of the e/o editions).

Via Gemito di Starnone in 2001 he won both the Premio Strega and the Campiello. It tells of Federì, an artist forced to be a railway worker to survive and refers in the title to the Vomero street where the narrator’s family lived. Nothing true di Raimowinner of the Strega Giovani Award in 2024, narrates with irony and disenchantment a defective family, Veronica’s.

They are in the longlist 13 candidature. Il April 9th we will know the shortlist of the 6 finalist books and the 21 maggio will be announced on winner. The prize consists of £50,000 to be split equally between the writer and the translator, while each shortlisted finalist takes home £2,500.

The International Booker Prize, an international prize awarded in the United Kingdom, is now held annually, in the past it was held every two years. This edition sees a boom in Latin American fiction. A few names: the Argentine poetess Almada Junglethe Venezuelan Rodrigo Blanco Calderónthe Brazilian Itamar Vieira Juniorthe Peruvian journalist Gabriela Wiener.

A curiosity. Quoting Starnone il Guardian he writes that it is rumored that he is the “real” author behind the pseudonym Elena Ferrante but then adds that Starnone himself has strongly denied this possibility.