For the first time in the history of the Premio Strega , the 2022 edition will be a final with seven books, with Mario Desiati in first place with 244 votes with his “Spatriati” (Einaudi).
The vote on 8 June , for the second time at the Roman Theater of Benevento, conducted by Stefano Coletta and live streaming on Raiplay, surprised everyone with the surprise of two ex aequo in fifth place and a repechage in seventh.
It had already happened in 2020 that the five books were extended to six books by virtue of article 7 of the voting regulations, so if among the five there are only large publishers, the first of the authors published by a small and medium-sized publisher can be fished out. , but seven had never been reached.
Two Einaudi titles in the running for victory with Veronica Raimo entering fourth place and her non-educational novel "Niente di vero", 169 votes, already winner of the 2022 Strega Giovani Prize. Feltrinelli excluded with “Divorzio di velvet ”By Jana Karsaiova, a book Coletta says he fell in love with, Bompiani with Davide Orecchio's“ Open Story ”and Ponte alle Grazie with Daniela Ranieri's“ updated roadmap of all my kisses ”, in the Campiello five-story.
Desiati with its irregular characters, vagabonds, wanderers, uncertain, the "Spatriates" just like Francesco Veleno and Claudia Fanelli, the two Apulian boys from Martina Franca, protagonists of this fluid story, had long been given as superfavorite to the five who drive with a detachment of 66 votes from the second classified, Claudio Piersanti with “Quel cursed Vronskij” (Rizzoli), 178 votes, and it is also for the sprint to the final victory. But he says: "It's a game. I have been in the publishing world for twenty years and I know that it is always all day by day. I am happy that after more than a year Spatriati are still there. I strongly believe in foresight. Spatriati is a seed within us all. It is a word that in my dialect means irregular. A negative word from someone who has gone astray. It's a story of light and shadow that all writers have to deal with. Sometimes we are afraid of shadows and instead we have to get to know them and make them friends "explains the 45-year-old writer from Martina Franca who at the end of the evening is overwhelmed by requests for autographs.
