Guillermo Saccomanno (Buenos Aires, 76 years old) assures that he does not fear the blank page, “I prefer that it fear me,” and adds that he is not someone who thinks about a novel chapter by chapter before writing it, but rather moves forward. “according to phrases and situations.” Those that he went through while writing the book that won the XXVIII Alfaguara Prize, The wind will burnincluded pneumonia, covid and eviction from the cabin where he lived. He explained it this Thursday by videoconference from Buenos Aires, shortly after the president of the jury, Juan Gabriel Vásquez, a Colombian novelist who won this same prize in 2011, announced the ruling at the Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid. The prize is worth 168,000 euros and will be published in all Spanish-speaking territories on March 20. More than 700 manuscripts were received and the jury deliberated on a selection of five works. The winner presented herself under the pseudonym Jim, “a tribute to Conrad and the character who turns failure into success,” according to Saccomanno.
The filmmaker Paula Ortiz, the writer and chronicler Leila Guerriero, the bookseller and writer Andrea Stefanoni and the journalist Manuel Jabois completed the jury—along with Pilar Reyes, editorial director of the label that did not have a vote—that awarded this new novel by the writer, poet, chronicler, comics scriptwriter and short story writer, winner of the Biblioteca Breve award in 2010 with The office worker and Rodolfo Walsh in 2011 for A teacher. Both the jury and the author mentioned the David Lynch-esque overtones that color the story of this novel located in the hotel of a coastal town where a family arrives. “Chekhov said ‘discover your people and you will be universal,'” said Saccomanno, who has lived between Buenos Aires and Villa Gesell for about 20 years, and adds Sherwood Anderson and William Faulkner to David Lynch to the list of his influences.
Leila Guerriero highlighted the spirited tone that she manages to capture, and that “oracular voice that could be any town, gossipy, that sees everything and knows everything.” And Vásquez referred to the speed of the story and the many genres it encompasses in just a few pages. “I was a comic book writer for many years and worked in advertising,” Saccomanno responded, and recovered the idea that he attributed to Truffaut of adding a twist to the story to move forward when he feels stuck. Its purpose: to talk about “class struggle, sex, money and power.” His method: keep your ears open. “In a town, if someone has a fall in the street, on the next corner they tell you that they pushed him and on the next one that it was his wife and on the next one that she no longer loves him,” he explained about the construction and confabulation that arises naturally. and that inspires you.
The literary event at the Círculo de Bellas Artes this Thursday around the announcement of the Alfaguara novel prize, the first event of the new year of the large publishing group Penguin Random House, brought together authorities such as the general director of the book, María José Gálvez; Councilor Marta Rivera de la Cruz; the director of the Cervantes Institute, Luis García Montero, and the director of the Madrid Book Fair, Eva Orúe. Writers who were debuting novels such as Fidel Moreno, Alfaguara winners such as Sergio Ramírez, Sergio del Molino and Manuel Vicent, and many others such as Manuel Vilas, Ana Merino, Sabina Urraca, Elvira Navarro, Marcos Giralt Torrente and Luisa Castro attended the lunch.
In the 28 editions since 1998, the year in which the award was resurrected by the then editor Juan Cruz, this award has gone to authors from both shores, with the goal of strengthening the ties of the Spanish-speaking community.