Òmnium Cultural has announced the ten finalists for the Òmnium award for the best novel of the year in Catalan, the award for the best-endowed work published in this language, with 20,000 euros for the author and 5,000 for the promotion of the work. This first selection was made by the translator and journalist Valèria Gaillard, the writer Enric Gomà, the literary critic Júlia Ojeda and the bookseller Lluís Ruiz. In a month, on December 19, the three finalists will be announced, who will choose Marta Pessarrodona, Neus Real, Marta Segarra, Oriol Izquierdo and Xavier Pla, and at the end of January the prize will be awarded.
In a statement from Òmnium, its president, Xavier Antich, says that “we put out the language every day, we use it in an uncomplicated way, also in literature, and with this award we give prestige to Catalan letters.” The prize was born in 2017 inspired by other prizes for published works such as the Goncourt and the Booker, and since then it has been won by Raül Garrigasait, Marta Orriols, Martí Domínguez, Eva Baltasar and, last year, Joan-Lluís Lluís. The circumstance occurs that the two previous years (Baltasar and Lluís) the publisher that published the winners was Club Editor, which this year does not have any books among those chosen.
The ten selected novels are:
in the lake Maria Barbal (Column)
Aioua. Roser Cabré-Verdiell (Males Herbes)
Dear. Empar Moliner (Column)
Dystocia Pilar Codony (The Other Editorial)
The Saint Helena monster. Albert Sánchez Piñol (La Campana)
The good days Aina Fullana (Joker)
Guilleries Ferran Garcia (Weeds)
the heights Sebastià Portell (Empúries)
Nicholas Antoni Veciana (Second Periphery)
anger Sebastià Alzamora (Proa)
Catalan version, here
