Vito di Battista, with his novel Il buon uso della distanza (Gallucci, 2023), wins the Iannas Literary Award – City of Quartu Sant’Elena for published fiction.
The award, conceived and directed by Massimo Granchi and Danilo Mallò, has reached its third edition this year. The award ceremony took place on October 13 in Quartu Sant’Elena, in the metropolitan city of Cagliari, with the Sardinian writer Cristina Caboni as the patroness.
The jury for the published fiction section was chaired by the writer Romano De Marco and included Elisabetta Atzeni (RAI journalist), Rossana Copez (writer), Mauro Pala (full professor of Literary Criticism and Comparative Literature at the University of Cagliari), Enrico Frau (president of the cultural association “Genti Arrubia” and curator of the Mediterranean Literature Festival), Francesco Grasso (writer, winner of the previous edition of the award), and Franciscu Sedda (associate professor of General Semiotics and Cultural Semiotics at the University of Cagliari).
This is the jury’s motivation for the award that declared the winning book:
«Il buon uso della distanza is a novel that proudly and authoritatively distances itself from some commercial and narrative logics in which contemporary literary mainstream often stagnates. In the perpetual debut of Pierre Renard (which recalls a nearly homonymous character by Borges), a tragic and ironic coexistence delves into the soul and the most hidden nightmares of being a writer. A gallery of unforgettable characters and a plot reminiscent of a nineteenth-century novel give this work the strength and honesty that make it unique and destined to leave a mark».
THE BOOK:
Paris, 1976. Pierre Renard has just received a flat rejection for his second novel. That same evening, he receives a letter from a mysterious “Madame,” who proposes an agreement. Tempted by curiosity, he agrees to write for a fee following the woman’s suggestions, provided he signs each new book with a different pseudonym. The two must never meet; they will communicate only by correspondence and through the mediation of Colette, the witty and wise proprietor of a pleasure house. Pierre will manage to earn a place of honor in the Parisian publishing scene, amidst blackmail, favors, and power maneuvers, but his life, in the shadows, will feel empty: nothing he is building truly belongs to him, not even love. Until he decides to break the game of fiction, to rediscover the truth of his existence: a disturbing family intrigue that branches from Florence, his hometown, to the French capital.
