Small press Fitzcarraldo Editions, which published the Nobel laureates Svetlana Alexievich and Olga Tokarczuk before they were recognised by the Swedish Academy, has landed the Republic of Consciousness prize for the novel Animalia by Jean-Baptiste Del Amo – but will share the £10,000 award with its fellow shortlistees.
Half-funded by the University of East Anglia, the award celebrates the best fiction from publishers with fewer than five full-time employees. Animalia, translated from French by Frank Wynne, follows a peasant family in the 20th century as their plot of land is developed into an intensive pig farm.
“This is no pastoral – it is a savage and brutal book, replete with sex and violence, which is also spellbinding, strange and immersive,” said judges, praising Wynne’s “masterful job” in translating Del Amo’s “rich, lyrical and inventive style”.
As the world is swept by the coronavirus, literary prizes have been adapting to a new world, with the Women’s prize winner announcement postponed from June until September, while the ceremony for the Folio award took place – remotely – last week. The Republic of Consciousness decided to share its prize pot of £10,000 equally between all five shortlisted publishers “in what is an extremely difficult time for small businesses and freelancers”, with the87press, And Other Stories, Galley Beggar Press and Dostoevsky Wannabe all to receive £2,000 alongside Fitzcarraldo.
“We’re sharing the prize money out equally between five small presses, but this year it was felt there could only be one winner,” said founder Neil Griffiths. “There is much to say about Animalia, but given the current global situation, it is timely indeed to have a book that is preoccupied with our bodies as physical organisms. Covid-19 doesn’t care about our minds, our rationality, our creativity. It has no interest in us as human beings: it is a virus that is transmitted from one animal to another. If the coronavirus levels us because we’re all susceptible, Animalia reminds us why.”
