The seventh Omnium Prize for the Best Novel of the Year has already chosen the nine books that qualify for the award, the long list from which the three finalists will emerge, who will be announced next month, and finally the winner will be announced in January.
The nine selected novels, published between November 2022 and October 2023, are A casa teníem un hymne, by Maria Climent (L’Altra Editorial); Married and silent, by Emma Zafón (Empúries); Against the world, by Pere Antoni Pons (Empúries); The day of the whale, by Melcior Comes (Univers), I gave you eyes and you looked at the darkness, by Irene Solà (Anagrama); The most painted woman, by Màrius Serra (Proa); The Teacher and the Beast, by Imma Monsó (Anagrama); Triomfador, by Joan Jordi Miralles (Males Herbes), and Once upon a time it was summer the whole night, by Elisabeth Riera (Males Herbes), and have been selected by a committee of experts formed by Valèria Gaillard (translator and cultural journalist) , Enric Gomà (writer, screenwriter and linguistic popularizer), Júlia Ojeda (literary critic) and Esteve Plantada (journalist and poet).
From the list, another jury, made up of Magí Camps, Neus Real, Marta Pessarrodona, Toni Puntí and Marta Segarra, will choose the three finalists, who will be announced next month, and finally, already in January, will announce the winning work.
In a statement issued by the organization, the president of Òmnium Cultural, Xavier Antich, assured that the award “gives prestige to Catalan letters because to guarantee the future of the language, more creation is needed, more reading is needed and more references are needed literary works in Catalan”.
The Òmnium prize for a published work was born in 2017, inspired by similar prizes such as the French Goncourt and the British Booker, and is endowed with 25,000 euros, of which 20,000 are for the author and 5,000 are allocated to the promotion of the book.
The first edition was won by The Strangers, by Raül Garrigasait (Editions of 1984), and later they won Learning to talk with the plants, by Marta Orriols (Periscopi); The spirit of time, by Martí Domínguez (Proa); Boulder by Eva Baltasar (Club Editor), which last May was a finalist for the international Booker; Junil in the lands of the barbarians, by Joan-Lluís Lluís (Club Editor), and last year Ràbia by Sebastià Alzamora (Proa).
