Strega Prize, the five finalists revealed: competing Bajani, Terranova, Rasy, Nori and Ruol

Andrea Bajani with "L'anniversario" (Feltrinelli), 280 votes, Nadia Terranova with "Quello che so di te" (Guanda), 226 votes, Elisabetta Rasy with "Perduto è questo mare" (Rizzoli), 205 votes, Paolo Nori with "Chiudo la porta e urlo" (Mondadori), 180 votes, Michele Ruol with "Inventory of what remains after the forest burns" (TerraRossa), 180 votes: this is the top five of the 2025 Strega Prize, now in its 79th edition. Donatella Di Pietrantonio, winner of the 2024 edition, announced the five finalists who will compete for the prestigious award. The shortlist was revealed this evening live on RayPlay during an event held at the Teatro Romano in Benevento, hosted by Stefano Coletta, who led the audience on a journey through words and stories, interviewing candidate authors while the votes were being counted.

626 voters out of 700 (equal to 89.4% of those entitled to vote) expressed their preferences, between individual votes and collective votes: to the jury of the 400 Friends of Sunday are added, as usual, 245 voters from abroad selected by 35 Italian cultural institutes in the world, each of which express 7 jurors among scholars, translators and enthusiasts of our language and literature, 25 collective votes from schools, universities and reading circles of the Libraries of Rome, 30 votes from strong readers chosen from the world of professions and entrepreneurship.

These are the votes obtained by the other books in the competition: Valerio Aiolli, Portofino blues (Voland), 102 votes; Saba Anglana, Mrs. Wonder (Sellerio Editore), 145 votes; Elvio Carrieri, Poor us (Ventanas), 77 votes; Deborah Gambetta, Incompleteness. A story of Kurt Gödel (Ponte alle Grazie), 93 votes; Wanda Marasco, With your back to this world (Neri Pozza), 114 votes; Renato Martinoni, Memories of sounds and lights. The story of a poet and his madness (Manni), 117 votes; Giorgio van Straten, The rebel. The extraordinary life of Nada Parri (Laterza), 159 votes.

This edition's Toto Strega shone under a new light, that of the moon and the stars, and the zodiac signs, drawn like the Prize poster by MP5, were the protagonists of the game: each sign was attributed to one of the books of the dozen. This is why the guest of honor of the evening was Simon & The Stars, who emphasized the deep connection between astrology and storytelling by defining the zodiac as a perfect narrative machine. The winners of this third edition of Toto Strega, which recorded about 1,000 online games, will be announced in the coming days.

The finalists of the five will bring their voices to 18 stages of meetings with the public, including the international stage on June 17 in Warsaw, at the Italian Cultural Institute. A stage will also be Abracabook, the silent book party organized by the Holden School on July 2 in the suggestive garden of the Maxxi Museum in Rome, on the eve of the final evening.

The Benevento event was made possible thanks to the collaboration between the City of Benevento, the Maria and Goffredo Bellonci Foundation, Strega Alberti Benevento, with the contribution of Rome Capitale Department of Culture and the Chamber of Commerce of Rome, in partnership with Bper Banca, media partner Rai and technical sponsors Librerie Feltrinelli and Sygla. (by Carlo Roma and Paolo Martini)