'Leña menuda', by Marta Barrio, 2021 Tusquets Novel Prize

The novel

by Marta Barrio (New Haven, USA, 35 years old), has been awarded the 17th Tusquets Prize for Novel Editors 2021. The jury, chaired by Almudena Grandes and made up of Antonio Orejudo, Eva Cosculluela, Bárbara Blasco (winner in his previous call) and Juan Cerezo, has unanimously agreed to award this award to a work that contains “an overwhelming and surprisingly mature story about the dramatic experience of a young woman and her unexpectedly frustrated motherhood, a narrative that maintains at all times a difficult balance between pain and the strength of not being carried away by a premature loss, the confirmation of a new voice with a whole future ahead ”.

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• The awards

The work, adds the award statement, recreates the life of a "young woman who lives with overwhelming enthusiasm the confirmation of her pregnancy." He begins by recounting the “carousel of plans together with his partner to adapt the house to the new son, choose the name, imagine life with him”. But one morning a small incident occurs on the way to work: on a short cut through a park, she is surprised by some dogs who knock her down before the owner can contain them. In the hospital, they confirm that the fetus has not been damaged, but an experienced doctor sees something strange in the ultrasounds that should have been detected previously.

The award consists of a bronze statuette designed by Joaquín Camps and an advance on copyright of 18,000 Euros. The Tusquets Editores de Novela Award is announced with the sponsorship of the Antonio López Lamadrid Fund, established in the José Manuel Lara Foundation.

be published in the Andanzas Collection on October 6.