The jury of the APE/DGLAB Romance and Novella Grand Prize unanimously decided to award the maximum award to the work «Misericórdia» (D. Quixote), by Lídia Jorge, in a set of 86 books admitted to the competition.
The jury, coordinated by José Manuel de Vasconcelos, consisted of Isabel Cristina Rodrigues, Maria de Lurdes Sampaio, Mário Avelar, Paula Mendes Coelho and Salvato Teles de Menezes.
«The novel Misericórdia, by Lídia Jorge, is a hymn to reading, literature and the transforming power of both in human life, but also to the power of literature to lift the underprivileged of time and our common social imaginary from the ground», can be read in the minutes of the jury.
«A novel of rare discursive maturity, it never ceases to surprise us for its apparent simplicity, which requires the reader to have a certain attunement or training capable of allowing him to capture it in the mesh of its discreet complexity», adds the jury.
The Prize, currently worth 15.000 euros, has already been awarded to 31 authors.
Lídia Jorge wins, for the second time, the APE/DGLAB ‒ 2022 Romance and Novella Grand Prize, established in 1982, which had, in this 41st edition, the following sponsorships: Directorate-General for Books, Archives and Libraries, Grândola City Council, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and Camões Institute.
The public ceremony for the APE/DGLAB Novel and Novel Grand Prize will be announced in due course.
Lidia Jorge debuted with the publication of The Day of Wonders, in 1980, one of the most emblematic books of post-revolution Portuguese literature. Since then, he has published several titles in the areas of novels, short stories, essays and theatre.
In 1988, The Coast of Whispers opened its doors to international recognition, and was later adapted to film by Margarida Cardoso. Among many others, titles such as The Valley of Passion, The Wind Whistling in the Cranes (awarded Grand Prize for Romance and Novels – 2002), We will fight the Shadow, The Memorables – a work that has been considered a powerful metaphor for Portuguese drift in recent decades –, or The Book of Truces, his poetry debut.
His books have been awarded the main national prizes, some of them for the body of work, such as the Latinity Prize, the Great Prize of the Portuguese Society of Authors – Millennium BCP or the Vergílio Ferreira Prize.
Abroad, among others, Lídia Jorge won the first edition of the prestigious ALBATROS award from the Günter Grass Foundation in 2006 and, in 2015, the Luso-Spanish Culture Grand Prix.
your novel Estuary (2018) received the XXIV Great Prize for Literature and was a finalist for the 2019 Médicis Prize; It is In all senses (2020) won the APE/Câmara Municipal de Loulé Chronicle and Dispersed Literary Prize.
In June 2023, he received the prize Vida Literária APE/Câmara Municipal de Braga.
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