The award convened by the Government of Andorra and Grup 62 is endowed with 8,500 euros

ANDORRA LA VELLA (ANDORRA) 2 (EUROPEAN PRESS)

The XII Carlemany Prize for the promotion of reading has been recognized for the writer Laura Casanovas for the novel ‘Les estrelles de Lilith’ (‘The stars of Lilith’), the Andorran government reported in a statement.

The award convened by the Government of Andorra and Grup 62 through Columna Edicions has a financial endowment of 8,500 euros, contributed by the two convening entities.

The jury – made up of nine students between the ages of 14 and 16 – has applauded Casanovas’ work and has described it as “hectic, entertaining and one that you cannot stop reading”.

‘Les estrelles de Lilith’ tells the story of Maria, a 15-year-old girl who has always lived in Barcelona but who, after falling in love with her mother through an Andorran policeman’s Tinder, moves with her to live in the Principality.

A man appears crucified the same day he arrives in the country, and days later a woman is found dead, despite the fact that the mother’s new partner guarantees that his country is “the safest and most peaceful in the entire northern hemisphere.” .

The police plot to investigate the murders is intertwined with the adventures of the protagonist and her adaptation in the new country.

NINE STUDENTS MAKE UP THE JURY

The jury was made up of nine students between the ages of 14 and 16, all of them students from the three educational systems of Andorra –Andorran, Spanish and French–, and to determine the winner they have read the works under the supervision of their literature teachers.

The students have read three finalist works that a reading council had previously selected for the jury to assess and award the prize.

The council was made up of the Catalan writers Maria Carme Roca and Laia Aguilar, the teachers from the three educational systems of Andorra Gemma Garcia, Sílvia Sinfreu and Alèxia Carreras and by the editor and representative of Columna Edicions, Glòria Gasch.

This year’s edition has received 28 originals and the award ceremony will be held in Andorra on May 3, coinciding with the publication of the planned book.

LAURA CASANOVAS

The writer Laura Casanovas Borrell (La Seu d’Urgell (Lleida), 1973) is a teacher at the Andorran Government’s Catalan centers for adults and in 2015 she published her first youth novel, ‘Un estiu a la fi del món’ (‘Un estiu a la fi del món’ (‘ A summer at the end of the world’).

She studied Catalan Philology at the University of Barcelona (UB), her first job was as a lexicographer at the Institut d’Estudis Catalans and she has lived in Germany, where she worked as a Spanish teacher for adults.

For 14 years Casanovas has lived in her grandparents’ town, Ges (Lleida), with her husband, two children, three dogs and a cat.