Writer Lídia Jorge won the Urbano Tavares Rodrigues Literary Prize for her novel, “Misericórdia”, a diary of the last year of a woman's life, a book about “the power of memory and literature”, the Leya group announced today.
The prize, established by the National Federation of Teachers (Fenprof), was awarded on Wednesday unanimously by the jury, made up of writers, teachers and essayists José Manuel Mendes, Paula Mendes Coelho and Paulo Sucena.
“Misericordia”, published in October last year by Don Quixote, “confronts us with our 'last days', with the universe of homes and residences where those who 'came to stay' are deposited and crowded together. A poignant account of this cruel and complex reality, […] a unique fictional x-ray of the tensions and contradictions that such microcosms foster”, describes the jury, in its decision minutes.
In the words of the judges, this is “a book about the power of memory and Literature – written, read and heard – to combat imposed seclusion and exile. A book about resistance based on understanding our condition in this world where, after all, 'all of us have only one story'”.
This was the competition “in which the greatest number of works of undeniable quality were presented”, with “Misericordia” standing out among the four novels selected, from a list of 18, said the jury.
This is the second time that Lídia Jorge has been honored with the Urbano Tavares Rodrigues Prize, as she had already been the winner of the second edition of this prize, in 2015, with the novel “Os Memoráveis”, highlights the publisher.
“Misericordia” was written by Lídia Jorge, because her mother, admitted to an institution for the elderly in the Algarve, asked her several times to write a book with that title.
The story takes place between April 2019 and April 2020, the date of the death of the author's mother, who was one of the first victims of Covid-19 in the south of the country.
“My mother asked me several times to write a book called 'Mercy', because she thought there was a misunderstanding, in the treatment of people, she thought that people tried to be loved, but didn't understand them. She asked me to write a book called 'mercy', so that we would have compassion for people and treat them as if they were people in the fullness of life”, revealed the author in an interview with the Lusa agency, at the time of the novel's publication.
According to the writer, this is not a “morbid” book and its writing did not evoke feelings of sadness or pain in her. Rather, it is a “book about the splendor of life that happens when people are about to leave”, about the “magnificent acts of resistance that people have at the end of life”.
“Misericordia” won the 2022 Novel and Novel Grand Prize from the Portuguese Writers Association (APE) and is currently appointed to the Femina Award 2023, the only Portuguese in the race for that award of French letters.
The winner of the last edition of the Tavares Rodrigues Urban Novel and Romance Award, in 2021, was “Livro de Vozes e Sombras”, by João de Melo, succeeding Luísa Costa Gomes, with the novel “Florinhas de Soror Nada” (2019) , Isabela Figueiredo, with “A Gorda” (in 2017), “Os Memoráveis” (in 2015), and Ana Cristina Silva, with “O Rei do Monte Brasil” (in 2013).
This Fenprof award alternates with the António Gedeão Poetry Award, the last edition of which, in 2022, distinguished AM Pires Cabral, with “Caderneta de Memonças”.
The other distinguished poets were António Carlos Cortez (2020), Daniel Jonas (2018), Nuno Júdice (2016), Manuel Gusmão (2014) and Ana Luísa Amaral (2012).
The two awards distinguish the literary work of writers who are also teachers, with the aim of valuing their work “beyond their demanding activity at school”.
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