After a blank edition, declared deserted, in 2022, and one that attracted some linguistic controversy, last year, the Llibres Anagrama de Novel·la award, endowed with 12,000 euros, has been won this year by Clara Queraltó with Like the sound of a heartbeat in a microphone, which will be released between the end of March and the beginning of April. The verdict of the jury, formed by Mita Casacuberta, Guillem Gisbert, Imma Monsó, Sergi Pàmies, Jordi Puntí and the editors Isabel Obiols and Silvia Sesé, was announced this Monday.
According to Anagrama, the novel speculatively follows the lives of Gabriela and Quim, who find themselves swimming in a lake, and explores “the mechanisms of seduction and attraction between opposites”, “with precise language and a refined style”. In a press release from the publisher with comments from members of the jury, Gisbert wrote that it is “an uncomfortable fable that reminds us that the first stages of love are, at bottom, a form of prejudice”. Imma Monsó, for her part, indicates that “the discovery of the story does not lie so much in the female point of view that tells us of a summer infatuation where she believes she marks the steps, but in the male one that, while undoing them , reveals to us the content of his silent submission”. According to Sergi Pàmies, “the idea of ??the heartbeat is not only a metaphor, but also a truth that marks the rhythm, style and emotions of this novel”.
Professor of Catalan language and literature, Queraltó (El Pla del Penedès, 1988) became known as a writer when she won the Mercè Rodoreda prize for short stories with El que pensen els otres (Proa, 2017), she has also published the novel ·la Et diré R. (Empúries, 2021) and a few months ago he debuted in children’s novels with Whistle in case of emergency (Bindi Books, 2023). He has also participated in the collective books Barcelona suites and Summer nights (Univers, 2019 and 2020) and collaborates in various media such as RAC1.
The Llibres Anagrama de Novel·la prize was established in 2016, when it was won by Albert Forns with Jambalaia, and later won by Tina Vallès (The memory of the tree, 2017), Llucia Ramis (The possessions, 2018) , Irene Solà (Canto jo i la muntanya balla, 2019), Anna Ballbona (I am not here, 2020, in which Terres mortes de Núria Bendicho received a special mention), Pol Guasch (Napalm al cor, 2021) and Andrea Genovart ( Preferred consumption, 2023).
