'Ràbia', by Sebastià Alzamora, Òmnium award for the best novel of the year in Catalan

"I don't think that literature protects us against evil, but at least it can serve to try to compensate for it," said Sebastià Alzamora once he received the Òmnium award for the best novel in Catalan for Ràbia on Thursday.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
30 January 2023 Monday 14:25
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'Ràbia', by Sebastià Alzamora, Òmnium award for the best novel of the year in Catalan

"I don't think that literature protects us against evil, but at least it can serve to try to compensate for it," said Sebastià Alzamora once he received the Òmnium award for the best novel in Catalan for Ràbia on Thursday. The Mallorcan novelist (Llucmajor, 1972) has added that before publishing it he even feared if "such a small story" would find many readers, and he has been grateful to the jury that "Taylor –the name of the protagonist's dog– has had such good reception".

Was there an expectation? Regarding the author, yes, of course, even by the publisher, but the winner was yes or yes from Grup62. This year, in fact, among the first ten pre-finalists there was none from Club Editor, which had published the winning books the previous two years. Finally, Alzamora has taken him away with this book in which a disappointed writer suffers the death of his dog, and which has been published by Proa. The writer has explained that when his dog, Cooper, was killed a few years ago, he did not see a novel there, but it was when he realized that "the death of an animal, of an innocent being, by violence, could be a starting point to talk about certain issues that concern me”. A metaphor for rage as a social disease.

During the award ceremony, at the Casa Rius in Barcelona, ​​the journalist Anna Guitart interviewed the three finalist authors, who in addition to the winner were Maria Barbal, for Al llac (Columna), and Sebastià Portell, for Les altures (Empúries ), who have presented their books.

Next, the president of Òmnium Cultural, Xavier Antich, recalled that "there is only one thing as intense as reading, and that is talking about what we have read." There is no literature without readers, and we want to work to multiply them – he added -. Although we have a minority language, our literature is not, because it is read by everyone, and "the three finalists talk to us about things that matter to us here and there." Finally, before passing the word on to the winner, he read the verdict of the jury, made up of Oriol Izquierdo, Marta Pessarrodona, Xavier Pla, Neus Real and Marta Segarra.

Until recently, the Òmnium prize was the best-endowed prize for published works in Catalan, 20,000 euros for the winner and 5,000 for the promotion of the work, although now it has the competition of the Finestres – endowed with the same amount, but entirely for the winner-. The cultural entity created the award, which is in its sixth edition, with the ambition of being on a par with prestigious awards such as the French Goncourt and the English Booker. The previous years were won by Raül Garrigasait, Marta Orriols, Martí Domínguez, Eva Baltasar and, last year, Joan-Lluís Lluís.

Catalan version, here