Donatella Di Pietrantonio was
announced the winner of the 2024 Strega Prize, Italy's top
literary award, overnight for her novel 'L'Età Fragile' (The
Fragile Age).
The book, published by Einaudi, focuses on the relationship
between a woman and her young adult daughter during the COVID-19
pandemic.
It also tackles the issue of gender violence by referring a
crime case that occurred in Di Pietrantonio's native Abruzzo in
1997.
"I promise that I will use my written and oral voice to defend
the rights that my generation of women fought hard for and which
today can no longer be taken for granted," said Di Pietrantonio,
who, despite her success as a writer, has never left her day job
as a children's dentist.
L'Età Fragile prevailed with 189 votes, well ahead of Dario
Voltolini's 'Invernale' with 143 in second.
The 62-year writer won another of Italy's top literary awards,
the Premio Campiello, with her third novel Arminuta in 2017.
Di Pietrantonio had already won the Strega Giovani Prize, the
version of Italy's top literary competition judged by teenagers
between the ages of 16 and 18 from over 100 secondary schools in
Italy and abroad, for L'Età Fragile.
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