Comisso Award 2025, finalists selected

The Technical Jury of the Comisso Prize, chaired by Pierluigi Panza, selected today in a public session at the Giovanni Comisso auditorium of Villa Guidini in Zero Branco (Treviso), the two finalist trios, in the Italian narrative and biography sections, of the 44th edition.

In Italian Fiction the selected are: "Bambino" by Marco Balzano (Einaudi), "Il tempo degli imprevisti" by Helena Janeczek (Guanda), "La gloria" by Aurelio Picca (Baldini+Castoldi). In Biography: Roberto Longhi. The myth of the greatest art historian of the twentieth century" by Tommaso Tovaglieri (Il Saggiatore), "Uccidere un fascista" by Giuseppe Culicchia (Mondadori). "Taking everything. I, Aristotle Onassis" by Anna Folli (Neri Pozza).

During the selection process, the Technical Jury also highlighted other works in the competition as worthy of attention. They are, in the Italian Fiction section: "I shine but I don't burn" by Ilaria Tuti (Longanesi), "Inventory of what remains after the forest burns" by Michele Ruol (TerraRossa), "The ten steps of farewell" by Luigi Nacci (Einaudi), "The lord of the waters" by Giuseppe Zucco (Nutrimenti), "The crypt of Venice" by Matteo Strukul (Newton and Compton), "The disappearance of colors" by Luigi Manconi (Garzanti), "This sea is lost" by Elisabetta Rasy (Rizzoli). For Biography, we recommend: "The Contention over Picasso. Fernanda Wittgens and Palma Bucarelli" by Rachele Ferrario (La Tartaruga), "Antonio Salieri. The Man Who Didn't Kill Mozart" by Ernesto Monsalve (Edizioni Ares), "The Bourbons. The Great Queens of the Two Sicilies" by Gigi Di Fiore (Utet), "Codice Canalini" by Giulio Milani (Transeuropa). The choice was made among the 186 works sent to the selection, of which 144 in Italian fiction and 42 for biography.

The Technical Jury is chaired by Pierluigi Panza and also includes Cristina Battocletti, Benedetta Centovalli, Rolando Damiani, Giancarlo Marinelli, Luigi Mascheroni, Alessandra Necci, Sergio Perosa, and Filippo Tuena. The mayor of Zero Branco, Luca Durighetto, Antonio Magoga, delegate for Treviso of Confindustria Veneto Est, and Ennio Bianco, President of the Amici d Comisso Association, spoke.

Also today, the winning work of the Comisso Under 35 Award - Rotary Club Treviso was announced, promoted by the Rotary Club Treviso together with the Amici di Comisso Association and reserved for writers under 35. There were 20 works selected and the Jury was composed of members of the same Technical Jury of Comisso and Maria Antonietta Possamai and Alessandra Lo Giudice representing Rotay Treviso.

The choice fell on "La coscienza delle piante" by Nikolai Prestia (Marsilio), a work that won the Comisso Under 35 Rotary Club Treviso Award, in its seventh edition. "This is the motivation: "With a simple and realistic narration, Prestia addresses the delicate theme of being and appearing. The novel reveals how much the family legacy and parental expectations weigh on the very life of children. Marco, a perfect boy and model student, suffers his first failure in a university exam. Accepting it is impossible. His love for Sabrina, with whom he shares the same sense of inadequacy and failure and therefore the same 'lie', which will give him the strength to reveal himself for what he really is to his father, to complete his university course".

Also noteworthy are "Party with a Cassowary" by Leonardo San Pietro (Sellerio publisher), "The Writer in the Dark" by Marco Malvestio (Voland) and "The Flight Over the Ocean" by Matteo Porru (Garzanti).

The two trios will now be sent to the Grand Jury, composed of 70 readers, who will then vote, in a public session, for the winners of the two sections during the final of the Comisso Prize, at the Teatro Comunale in Treviso on October 4th.

The Award has been promoted since 1979 by the Amici di Comisso Association, chaired by Ennio Bianco, and is supported by the Veneto Region, the Municipality of Treviso, the Treviso-Belluno Chamber of Commerce, Confindustria Veneto Est, Fondazione CentroMarca Banca and numerous local companies. Among these, the main sponsors are Parajumpers and Labomar.