Helena Janeczek, born in Munich in 1964 and resident in Rome since 1983, won the Strega Prize obtaining from the jury, in the setting of the Ninfeo of Villa Giulia in Rome, 196 votes out of 660 preferences for Ragazza with the Leica (Guanda publisher), a work that tells the biography of the photographer Gerda Taro and her story with Robert Capa, describing the 27s of the Spanish Civil War in the background. Died at about XNUMX overwhelmed by a tank, fighting the Spanish dictatorship with her art and courageously keeping in mind one of Capa's famous phrases "If your photos aren't good enough, it's because you're not close enough", Gerda Taro it was celebrated by Janeczek "because it is the symbol of a free and independent woman who believed in her convictions", explained the writer.
"Now I hope that many other women can win it after me and that women continue to get the right attention," said the winner of the award. “This year we were six out of twelve contestants, all with different books that demonstrate the richness of the stories told. In Italy all this is possible because there are very good women writers”.
Like every year the battle between the 12 books in contention it was turned on. However, this year's edition was significant for two main reasons: to win the prize returns to being a woman after fifteen years, the last was Melania G. Mazzucco with C.V. way back in 2003. The second reason for discontinuity with respect to the past concerns the dispossession of the Mondadori-Rizzoli group (before and after the merger) which obtained the prize for about eleven years.
In second place Marco Balzano with I'm staying herei, published by Einaudi, which won 144 votes and in third place Sandra Petrignani with The corsair. Portrait of Natalia Ginzburg, edited by Neri Pozza with 101 votes. Again, in the fourth Carlo D'Amicis with The game of Mondadori with 57 votes and fifth Lia Levi with This evening is already tomorrow of E/O Editions with 55 votes. Paolo Cognetti, winner of the last edition of the Premio Strega, presided over the seat.
The president of Guanda, Luigi Brioschi, was proud who said: "the Witch rewards an original book, an unmistakable voice of literature and an author who has an indisputable literary profile, and also rewards a publishing house that has strongly believed in Helena Janeczek's novel and has seen its consensus grow”.
