Of "Two Lives", Francesco Piccolo said: "It is a book that looks like no other". The writer of "The desire to be like everyone" used the perfect words to describe the work of Emmanuel Trevi, winner of the 2021 Strega Prize. A victory that he, the son of a Jungian psychoanalyst and writer of essays and novels, dedicated to his mother and photographer Lorenzo Cappellini.
The victory of Emanuele Trevi at the 2021 Strega Award
To earn the 2021 Strega Award, Emanuele Trevi beat Donatella Di Pietrantonio ("Borgo Sud"), Edith Bruck ("The lost bread"), Giulia Caminito ("The water of the lake is never sweet") and Andrea Bajanic ("The Book of Houses"). His “Due vite”, published by Neri Pozza, earned 187 votes. 400 Amici della Domenica expressed their preferences, 30 readers selected by independent Italian bookstores, 240 Italian and foreign scholars, intellectuals and translators as well as schools, universities and reading groups. Many, among the Friends of Sunday, the well-known writers: Silvia Avallone, the winner of the Premio Strega Giovani 2020 Daniele Mencarelli, Giorgio Nisini, Matteo Nucci, Laura Pugno.
"I dedicate the victory to my mother, who passed away during this hellish period of human history and who would have enjoyed seeing me on television because she loved all the races. from X Factor to Sanremo”Said Trevi, receiving the award. And remembering when the Strega Prize touched it in 2012, when Alessandro Piperno won with “Inseparables. The friendly fire of memories ”and his“ Something Written ”came in second.
Who is Emanuele Trevi
In addition to his mother, Emanuele Trevi dedicated the 2021 Strega Award to his photographer friend Lorenzo Cappellini. "And then to a friend, a very familiar person at the Premio Strega who is a great photographer friend of Hemingway, Lorenzo Capellini who is in a difficult moment and was close to me until a few days ago, in the midst of this adventure" he said. Born in 1964, Trevi published his first novel in 2003 ("The dogs of nowhere"). He worked as creative director at Fazi editore, has published numerous essays, and won the Sandro Onofri Prize for his reportage on the poet Pietro Tripodo “Senza verso. A summer in Rome ", the Naples Prize with" The book of perpetual joy "and the Viareggio Prize with" Dreams and fables ".
His "Two Lives", proposed by Francesco Piccolo for the Strega Prize, is the story of two lives: that of Rocco Carbone and Pia Pera, writers who died prematurely some time ago and linked, during their short existence, by a deep friendship. Trevi rebuilds their lives, with passion and fidelity. He underlines the differences, with Carbone obsessed with simplification and Pera timid but brazen. "Nurturing different and irreconcilable obsessions, Rocco Carbone and Pia Pera appear, in these pages, as if united by a transparent and happy bond up to the last" we read on the synopsis of the book. A book that, at the 2021 Strega Award, triumphed by convincing everyone.
Featured photo taken from the Twitter page of the Premio Strega (credit Musacchio, Ianniello & Pasqualini)
