Argentinian writer Pablo Maurette was awarded the Herralde Novel Prize for «El contrabando ejemplar» (The Exemplary Smuggling), beating four finalists. In the final stage, he competed with «Adelante, Cronófobos!» by Diego Garrido, «El profesor de piano» by Emilia Lenz, «Gringo joven» by Yobaín VB, and «Animal fiero» by Juan José Ferro Hoyos. Marta Sanz defined the novel as «a most delightful journey through our historical and personal fictions», while Villalobos highlighted its «delirious and provocative exegesis of Argentine history». The work, which will arrive at Argentine bookstores in December, tells the story of Pablo, an aspiring writer who travels to Madrid to recover the unfinished manuscript of Eduardo, his friend and mentor. That incomplete text sought to unravel the enigma of the Argentine destiny from the «exemplary smuggling», a 17th-century clandestine trade system. With humor, tenderness, and violence, the characters form a mosaic where history, imagination, and affective memory are confused. The jury — made up of Cecilia Fanti, Gonzalo Pontón Gijón, Marta Sanz, Juan Pablo Villalobos, and editor Silvia Sesé — distinguished the work presented under the pseudonym Carlos Bernárdez. For Fanti, the work responds from literature to the question «when did Argentina get screwed up?». Born in Buenos Aires in 1979, Maurette is the author of the novels «La migración» and «La niña de oro», and essays such as «La carne viva» and «Por qué nos creemos los cuentos». The appropriation of the manuscript becomes an exercise in personal and literary reconstruction: a journey between the biographies of the narrator and his master, a Peronist, melancholic, and excessive character. The story features figures such as Aunt Chiquita, Teruca, Pietro Malaspina — the first Italian to set foot on the Río de la Plata — Zebulão Mendes, a converso Jewish doctor, and the Querandí monster, a mythical creature that hovers over national history. Argentine writer Pablo Maurette was awarded the Herralde Novel Prize for «El contrabando ejemplar», selected from 892 manuscripts. He resides in Florence, collaborates with La Repubblica, and teaches comparative literature at Florida State University.
