COSENZA – Macedonian author Goce Smilevski and Egyptian writer Ala al-Aswani have received the prestigious Mediterranean Culture Prize at a glittering ceremony sponsored by the Carical foundation.

 Ester Armanini, a young architect from Genoa, won the youth narrative prize for her debut novel Storia naturale di una famiglia during the prize giving at Cosenza’s imposing Teatro Rendano which was presented by RAI journalist Attilio Romita.

 Also honoured with the prize in the creativity section was film maker Gianni Amelio, a native of nearby San Pietro di Magisano in Calabria province, whose latest movie is The First Man, an adaptation of Albert Camus’ autobiography about his impoverished childhood as the son of European settlers in Algiers and his family’s struggle to survive after his father was killed fighting in the First World War.

  Smilevski was selected by the jury for his book The Sister of Freud, a study of the tragic life of Adolfine, one of the sisters of the famed psycho-analyst. Smilevski said he had been gripped by her life not least because it cast new light on Sigmund’s life. “Freud was allowed by the Nazis to take 16 people with him when he left Vienna,” Smilevski told the audience, “but he chose not save any of his sisters.”

 They perished in death camps. The book also was awarded the European Union Prize for Literature.

 Handing over the prize to the winners was Mario Bozzo, president of the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Calabria e di Lucania, which sponsors the sought-after awards. Also on the judges’ panel were journalist and writer Giuliana Sgrena, writer and translator Younis Taffouk, Francois Livi from the Sorbonne, sociologist Domeinco De Masi from the La Sapienza University in Rome.

 jp