A Good Enough Mother winner of the European Rapallo BPER Banca Prize
Rapallo, a beautiful corner of Liguria, was the setting in November 2023 for a wonderful moment in my life as a writer.
The jury for the European Rapallo BPER Banca Prize for fiction selected my latest novel, A Good Enough Mother (Published by Guanda as ‘Una buona madre‘/ ‘A Good Mother’), as the winner of this inaugural prize.
This recognition means much more to me than a literary award; it is an affirmation of the power of storytelling.
The seven finalists of the Rapallo BPER Banca European Award 2023
- Ivana Bodrozic “Sons, Daughters”, Sellerio, 2023;
- Catherine Dunne “A Good Mother”, Guanda, 2022;
- Najat El Hachmi “They Will Love Us on Monday”, SEM, 2023;
- Annie Ernaux “The Boy”, L’orma, 2022;
- Amélie Nothomb “The Book of Sisters”, Voland, 2023;
- Helga Schubert “Getting Up”, Fazi, 2023;
- Tatiana Tibuleac “The Summer my Mother Got Green Eyes”, Keller, 2023.
The European Prize was created as a recognition dedicated to women writers who between 10/1/2022 and 8/20/2023 have published a work of fiction in a country and in a language of the European Union, published in Italy and translated into Italian.
The choice of the finalists reflects the wide-ranging investigation conducted by the jury among the 27 EU countries: the nominated authors are in fact Croatian (Ivana Bodrozic), Irish (Catherine Dunne), Spanish (Najat El Hachmi), French ( Annie Ernaux), Belgian (Amélie Nothomb), German (Helga Schubert) and Moldovan (Tatiana Tibuleac).
The jury statement
‘In A Good Enough Mother, translated by Ada Arduini, Catherine Dunne weaves together the lives of several diverse and ill-starred women, and the individual stories of each protagonist gradually unfold as if in a noir mystery. Switching back and forth between characters, Dunne links a compelling present to a troubled past. In the process, she sheds light on the very different ways of being a mother, illuminating also the historical background of a Catholic country such as Ireland, with its burden of infamous institutions characterised by the collusion between Church and State.’
