Who are the seven finalists for the 2022 Strega Award

Not five or six: the one that will reach the final at the Premio Strega 2022 is a seven, if we can say so. For the first time in history since the foundation of the prestigious literary recognition, seven authors with their respective books were admitted to the final, starting from the twelve who had reached the semifinals. According to the very detailed regulation drawn up by the Bellonci Foundation which organizes the prize, in fact, those who arrive with equal merit in the assignment of votes are automatically nominated, in addition there is a compensation mechanism which provides that, if all the chosen finalists belong to large groups editorial, a representative of a small to medium-sized publisher must also be "fished out". Both conditions occurred this year and here we are in a final of seven.

On the evening of June 8, therefore, at the Roman Theater of Benevento there was a rather surprising semifinal, up to the last minute. Favorite of the first hour, Mario Desiati arrived first who won 244 votes out of the 593 total thanks to his Spatriati (published by Einaudi), a novel that tells of a friendship in which opposites attract but above all in which a generation, that of today's forties, who have freed themselves from many chains and traveled far to conquer (or maybe not) the world.

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In second place, with 179 votes, came Claudio Piersanti with Quel cursed Vronskij (Rizzoli), a novel that investigates the loneliness of a man suddenly abandoned by his wife who believed he was united to him by an unshakable bond, who then goes through this absence abandoning himself to reading Anna Karenina. Third place with 175 points for Marco Amerighi and his Randagi (Bollati Boringhieri), a generational fresco that explores the growth and evolution (or involution) of young men who go through life as a challenge or as a renunciation, all set in a familiar lexicon between traditional lyricism and a language that is always renewed and creative.

It then continues with Veronica Raimo who with her Niente di vero (also published by Einaudi, like that of Desiati) was awarded 169 votes: his novel, a ferocious but also irreverent portrait of a young woman today amidst sexual desire, family obsessions and sentimental short circuits, a little like Fleabag, also won the Strega Giovani 2022 award, decided by a jury of over five hundred boys from upper secondary schools distributed in Italy and abroad. Fifth place with 168 equal votes for Fabio Bacà (Nova, Adelphi) and Alessandra Carati (And then we will be safe, Mondadori): the first is an experimental and at the same time fully literary novel, which navigates the neuroses but also the unfathomability of quicker daily life, with a protagonist as ordinary as it is unique; the other is a family saga centered on Aida, a young Bosnian refugee who must rediscover a dimension and growth in Italy, suspended between family and the outside world, both of which are not always welcoming.

As we said, these "initial" finalists "Are all published by major publishing houses (indeed the Mondadori group has four of its representatives, all apart from Amerighi and Bacà) and for this reason it was decided to admit the first position expressed by an independent publisher in the final: here is the repechage of Veronica Galletta, author of Nina sull'argine (minimum fax), came seventh with 103 votes thanks to her book focused on a Sicilian professional catapulted to the North in a work that seems to show her only the contradictions and the depersonalization of life. It will therefore be among these seven finalists that the winner of the Premio Strega 2022 will be decreed, during the usual live broadcast to be held on 7 July at the Ninfeo di Villa Giulia in Rome and which will be broadcast on Rai 3 for the conduct of Geppi Cucciari.