Rosario Villajos (Córdoba, 1978) has unanimously won the 65th Biblioteca Breve Prize with La educación física, a novel starring Catalina, a teenager who punishes her body and begins to discover female desire, without managing to shake off shame, resentment, and guilt. The jury, formed by Pilar Eusamio, Pere Gimferrer, Inés Martín Rodrigo, Elena Ramírez, and Isaac Rosa, valued the presence of "a narrative voice that explores its own identity through the body and that, in doing so, captures the sense of a generation and transforms it into an experience that is both unique and universal." The award is convened by the Seix Barral publishing house and is endowed with 30,000 euros.
"Writing is my home, my peace, my solace, and my way of laughing and crying when I can neither laugh nor cry," the author declared this Monday at the award ceremony, proudly emotional, even more so when actress Vicky Luengo read the first pages of her novel, not hesitating to record it with her mobile phone. "It could be titled 'resentment,' resentment towards myself," she continued, acknowledging that she felt lighter after finishing the novel because she was able to shout something she carried inside, "I am not Catalina, but the novel stems from an autobiographical feeling."
La educación física takes place in the nineties, with the girls of Alcàsser and Laura Palmer in the background. The story unfolds during the four hours of an August afternoon when the protagonist hitchhikes, after an argument with a friend's father, worried about all the bad things that could happen to her, though more afraid of the scolding she will get if she doesn't get home soon. "It is set in the 90s, but it is talking about today," said Isaac Rosa, last year's Biblioteca Breve winner with Lugar seguro. Of the few things that have changed, the author emphasizes, is that now stories like this, about women and told by women, are published and win awards: "Consent has been on the table for a long time, I wanted to explain where we come from."
Catalina's body and the multiple changes she is experiencing are already present from the cover with a girdle as a symbol of the aesthetic pressure women suffer. "It perfectly summarizes the entire novel. It is not just a physical garment, it is an emotional corset," Villajos stated, remarking that the one on the cover can be found at El Corte Inglés, "the protagonist uses it and so does her mother, she wants to protect her by means of something that is so difficult to put on and take off."
For Inés Martín Rodrigo, the female body is very present, with a young Catalina who begins to know her sexual desires: "She sees that there is something called female desire, despite the fact that we have been taught to repress it, even to feel guilty. Thanks to this novel we feel, we put guilt aside and we learn."
A protagonist that Elena Ramírez, editorial director of Seix Barral, believes could become a youth reference for many teenagers, always accustomed to reading their stories and having to understand themselves through their schemes. "Catalina is equivalent to Andrea from Carmen Laforet's Nada: her voice shows an identical discomfort, surrounded by an uncomfortable environment in which she does not feel at ease, while masterfully portraying the time and era in which she is living."
The book will be published next March 8, a pure coincidence. In this edition, the award received a total of 702 manuscripts, with a special prominence of autofiction, detective plots and family sagas. Spain is the country from which most novels are sent, more than half and with Madrid being the community that participates the most.