Elena Varvello wins the Rapallo fiction prize with La vita sempre
The award at the Teatro delle Clarisse goes to a Guanda novel that follows two young people from Alba through fascism and war.
Elena Varvello’s La vita sempre, published by Guanda, has won the fiction category of the Rapallo BPER Banca Prize. As Il Secolo XIX reported on 8 November, the verdict in the prize’s fifth edition came on the evening of 7 November at the Teatro delle Clarisse in Rapallo, in Italy’s Liguria region.
The novel follows Francesco and Teresa, who grow up in Alba in families of different means. As fascism and then war change the life of their town, their hopes and their relationship are tested by choices that reach beyond the couple. Varvello told Rai Cultura that the story of her grandparents was the starting point for the book. The same ceremony honoured Asmae Dachan in the society and nonfiction category and Anna Foa with a lifetime achievement award.