The Chiara Prize, Enrico Remmert wins with “La guerra dei Murazzi”

Enrico Remmert’s day had got off to a good start. Before the final decision, his book, “La guerra dei Murazzi” (Marsilio), had already won the prize awarded by the jury of journalists, and in the count of the first 60 cards, it had a clear lead over “La conoscenza di sè” (La nave di Teseo) by Luca Doninelli and “L’altlante delle meraviglie” (Minimun Fax) by Danilo Soscia.

In the interview with Romano Oldrini, the chairman of the association “Amici di Piero Chiara”, Remmert had said about the genre of tales, “The writer of tales has to win by a knockout, whereas the novelist can win on points.” The 94 final preferences of the people’s jury are a clear, but kind knockout, where the winner demonstrates an honest and supportive sense of guilt. Remmert’s first thought went to his publisher, Cesare De Michelis, who died recently, and who was the heart and soul of Marsilio. His second thought went to his two opponents, Luca Doninelli and Danilo Soscia, “companions” with whom he had shared the experience of the Chiara Prize. “I spent two interesting days with them,” Remmert said on the spur of the moment. “Hearing them in the meetings, in the last few days was very interesting, and I am almost sorry. That’s how it went. I’ve already bought Danilo’s book, and now I’m going to buy Luca’s too. Don’t sell them all, leave one for me.”

The stories told by Remmert are picaresque, tales of movements of people, journeys of unwitting protagonists of life, who move between Cuba and Serbia, passing through Turin’s famous Murazzi. “If there’s a common thread, it runs between the international and the nocturnal,” Remmert explained. “In the last few days, some readers have told me that my tales are love stories. Everyone finds what they want.”

When you ask a writer if writing a novel is different from writing a tale, you enter a territory where the border is very faint and full of contradictions. Although Remmert answered this question with a boxing metaphor, both Doninelli and Soscia agreed that a tale is “a counterpart to the world of novels, where everything falls.”