Irene Solà’s latest novel, I gave you eyes and looked at the darknesstranslated into Dutch by Adri Boonhas become the first work in Catalan that wins the European Literature Award from Netherlands 2025. This award awarded the best contemporary European novel published in Dutch translation the previous year.
Irene Solà and Adri Boon will receive the prize on Saturday, November 8 during the festival Crossing border. Both the author and the translator of the winning book will receive a prize of € 10,000 each in cash.
The Institut Ramon Llull has supported both the translation and the international promotion of the work. In addition, Adri Boon participated in the Irene Solà Translators Seminar That the IRL organized last year at the Faberllull residence in Olot. This September the translator will attend a residence at the Autonomous University of Barcelona to translate the work of Montserrat Roig, also with the support of the Institute.
The publisher, Uitjerij cosseewhich published the second novel by Irene Solà last year, published this June Ramona Goodbye de Montserrat Roig and still plans to publish two more works by the same author, The time of cherries in October and The violet hour, In February of next year. In addition, the publisher will participate in the next edition of the Llull Fellowshipwhich will take place during the Book Week in Catalan between September 21 and 26.
In his verdict, the jury of the prize emphasized that it is “ a generous novel in which all life is celebrated and curses at the same time in great style. Misery and ecstasy, love and hatred, cruelty and humor, the angel and the devil: despite everyone colliding, until only death can follow. The language of Solà is wild, his tense compositions, his wives, and his richly unforgettable compositions. The translation of Adri Boon that we can experience this novel in all its savage and generosity. “
The jury was chaired by Niña Weijersand the booksellers are part of it Annette Breithaupt (Van der Velde bookstore) and Maartje van tesel (Bijeveld Bookstore), the journalist and essayist Jan Postmaand Karol lesmantranslator of last year’s winning work (Empusion by Olga Tokarczuk).
The European Literature Award of the Netherlands 2025, which this year reaches its 15th edition, is an initiative of the Dutch Foundation for Literaturethe academic-cultural platform Spi25the weekly Of groene amsterdammer and the bookstore Athenenaeum | Scheltema. The prize has the financial support of the Dutch Foundation for Literature.
