ROME - Postorino, D'Adamo, Calandrone, Canobbio, Petri: these are the five finalists for the Strega Prize announced at the Roman theatre in Benevento. Four women and one man in the final rush with strong and intimate stories which explore the authors' private lives, focusing on the relationship between parents and children.

 The final, with the proclamation of the 2023 Strega Prize, will be on July 6 as per tradition at the National Etruscan Museum in Rome and will be broadcast live on television by Rai 2.  

 Leading the ranking is Rossella Postorino with Mi limitavo ad amare te (Fetrinelli), with a novel that starts from the real story of the children of Sarajevo saved from the war of 1992 but who lost their family dimension, a historical and formative novel on the stories of Omar, Nada and Danilo that pushes the reader, as Postorino said, "to question themselves on … existential ties.”

 She is followed by Ada D'Adamo with Come d'aria (Elliott) and Maria Grazia Calandrone with Dove non mi hai portata (Einaudi) with 217, 199 respectively.

 Fourth place goes to Andrea Canobbio with La traversata notturna (La Nave di Teseo) with 175 votes and Romana Petri with Rubare la notte (Mondadori) with 183 votes.

 In the last twenty years, the only two Strega prizes won by female writers were that of Melania Mazzucco for Vita in 2003 and Helena Janeczek for La ragazza con la Leica in 2018.

 Choosing the five titles from a shortlist of 12 finalists was the vote of the collectives, readers abroad and the Amici della domenica, 600 in total of whom 596 exercised their right. Mario Desiati, last year’s winner with Spatriati, was president of the vote.

 The five winners of this year’s edition will meet the public at 16 stages throughout Italy, including as always one abroad at an Italian Cultural Institute, on June 20 in Berlin. The Strega Tour will stop in Naples, Benevento, Florence, Modena, Salò, Parma and Rimini.

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