With ‘The Third Paradise’, a story of personal memory that covers the recent history of Argentina and Chile, the two homelands of the journalist and writer
The Chilean-Argentine writer Cristian Alarcón is the winner of the Alfaguara Novel Prize, which failed its twenty-fifth edition this Thursday. Endowed with 175,000 dollars, (154,000 euros, approximately) a sculpture by Martín Chirino and the simultaneous publication of the novel throughout the Spanish-speaking territory. Alarcón won it unanimously with ‘El Tercer Paraiso’, which takes place between Argentina and Chile. Alarcón, who presented it with the same title and under the pseudonym Daniel Vitulich, takes over from the Colombian writer Pilar Quintana, awarded in 2021 for ‘Los abismos’.
The jury has highlighted «the narrative vigor of a beautiful novel, with a dual structure. Set in various places in Chile and Argentina, the protagonist reconstructs the history of his ancestors, while delving into his passion for cultivating a garden, in search of a personal paradise. The novel opens a door to the hope of finding a refuge from collective tragedies in the small. As the author says, “beauty begins in the wonder of flowers, as beautiful as they are finite, in which we will always see the mystery that cannot be solved” The winning novel will be on sale in bookstores on March 24.
899 manuscripts were submitted to this Alfaguara call, of which 131 were sent from Argentina, 87 from Colombia, 43 in Chile, 408 from Spain, 57 from the United States, Mexico with 119, and Peru and Uruguay with 29 and 25, respectively.
The Spanish writer Fernando Aramburu presided over the jury, which was also joined by the Spanish writers Olga Merino and Ray Loriga; the Argentine writer and Lata Peinada bookseller, Paula Vázquez, and the Mexican editor and director of the Guadalajara International Book Fair, Marisol Schulz Manaut. The editorial director of Alfaguara, Pilar Reyes, with voice, but without vote, completed the list of the jury.
History
Alfaguara, a label founded in 1964 by Camilo José Cela and his brother Jorge, has been part of Penguin Random House since 2014 and has one of the richest and most varied literary catalogs in the Spanish language. Its first edition was held in 1965. More than three decades later, in 1998, it was relaunched by the journalist and writer Juan Cruz, literary director of Alfaguara between 1992 and 1998. In this last stage, the Alfaguara has played a crucial role in the dissemination of literature in the Spanish language: more than 2,700,000 readers have enjoyed the winning works, always valued for their high literary quality. Its simultaneous edition in Spain, Latin America and the United States serves as a tribute to a common language for more than five hundred and fifty million readers.
Since its foundation in 1998, the Alfaguara Novel Prize jury has been chaired by Carlos Fuentes, Eduardo Mendoza, Alfredo Bryce Echenique, Antonio Muñoz Molina, Jorge Semprún, Luis Mateo Díez, José Saramago, José Manuel Caballero Bonald, Ángeles Mastretta, Mario Vargas Llosa, Sergio Ramírez, Luis Goytisolo, Manuel Vicent, Bernardo Atxaga, Rosa Montero, Manuel Rivas, Laura Restrepo, Javier Cercas, Carme Riera, Elena Poniatowska, Fernando Savater, Juan José Millás, Juan Villoro, Héctor Abad Faciolince.
This very special edition is celebrated after Alfaguara was awarded the National Prize for Best Cultural Editorial Work in 2021, awarded by the Ministry of Culture and Sports “in recognition of its role in the history of Spanish publishing, for its contribution to the formation of readers in the best international narrative, for its role in disseminating creation in Spanish from both shores and for its innovative contribution to children’s and youth literature.
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