The screenwriter from Alacant has won the Diafebus Award with The storm of Sant Joan. The Culture prize, as had already been announced, has been for Ferran Torrent, while the LLetraferit novel prize has been forfeited.
The scriptwriter and oral narrator Óscar Mora has won the VI Diafebus Prize for Youth Novels in an act that was held in the port of Valencia on June 30. The author from Alicante makes his narrative debut with this novel, although he had previously won some short story competitions.
According to the jury, the winning work is "a hilarious adventure novel that connects with the youth classics of our adolescence, but also with modern references such as Stranger Things». It is a work in which two gangs of friends arrive in Dénia to spend the summer of their lives and "very soon they will find themselves surrounded by a mystery that they will have to unravel, related to a strange brotherhood of fishermen and a thief of archaeological relics. An adolescence dreamed of by all, with adventures, mystery, action, fun, love and friendship.
The search for a treasure through the castle, the beaches and churches of Dénia, and even the English Cemetery
The novel takes place the days before the night of Sant Joan in Dénia. Spaces like the English Cemetery, the castle, beaches or a church in the capital of the Marina Alta They are the scene of a treasure hunt and the awakening of supernatural forces that the protagonists will have to face. The author, who has left veiled messages against mass tourism or machismo in the novel, acknowledged in his thank-you speech that The storm of Sant Joan It is not the book you would have liked to read, but to live: a summer full of adventures, with quirky characters and a mystery in the background.
The award has been announced for six years by Ediciones Plaza y Llibres de la Drassana, which will be in charge of its publication. It is the second time that an author from the province of Alicante has won the award, after Tono Fornés did so in 2018. Since then, authors such as Carme Cardona, Iván Carbonell or Alfons Pérez Daràs have won it.
The Lletraferit Prize for Valencian Culture has also been awarded to the writer Ferran Torrent. In the words of the editor and president of the jury, Toni Sabater, "he is the best-selling and most widely read author in Valencian of our time." The author of Sedaví claimed style as one of the most important things when writing.
«Thanks for the tip, L'illa de l'holandés, Societat limitada, Life in the abyss or the recent Memories of my mateix, are some of Torrent's works that have created an indelible mosaic of enormous vivacity and have turned him into an indispensable writer who will remain in Valencian traffic letters from the XNUMXth to the XNUMXst century”, Sabater pointed out.
The third prize of the night, the Lletraferit de Novel·la, has been deserted. On behalf of the jury, the historian and publisher Vicent Baydal has pointed out that, although the volume of novels presented has been quite high, "and some, without a doubt, of quality", he has remarked, "we have not found any that create a literary myth , which can become, for one reason or another, a benchmark for Valencian literature, culture and society, which is what we always seek with these awards». He was referring to the five previous winners, novels like Norway, by Rafa Lahuerta, or Mireia, by Puri Mascarell. Baydal has remarked that the number of writers who have applied for the award has been quite low, and he hopes that this situation will change in the face of next year's competition.
I would love to read this book.
Is there a translated version in English?