Benedetta Tobagi’s La Resistenza delle Donne (The Women’s Resistance) has won the 61st Campiello Prize.
The book is the tale of the women who took part in the Italian Resistance Movement. They fought against the occupying forces of Nazi Germany and the fascist collaborationists of the Italian Social Republic at the end of World War II.
“I was swept away by this book, like a river,” said Tobagi at the award ceremony. “I have the feeling that these women carried me on their shoulders up to here, up to this stage.
“I’d like to dedicate this prize to the memory of these extraordinary women who fought and who did not turn the other way at a terrible time”.
The Campiello is one of Italy’s top literary prizes. The winner, announced on stage at the Gran Teatro La Fenice, obtained 90 votes out of the 288 sent by the Jury of Three Hundred Anonymous Readers.
Second place went to Silvia Ballestra ” La Sibilla ” (Laterza) with 80 votes. Third place went to Marta Cai “Centomilioni ” (Einaudi) with 57 votes. In fourth place Tommaso Pincio ” Diario di un’estate marziana ” (Giulio Perrone editore) with 46 votes. And in fifth place Filippo Tuena, ” In search of Pan ” (nighttime) with 13 votes.
