Andrea Pauletto has claimed victory in the 38th edition of the Italo Calvino literary prize, awarded to emerging authors, with his novel entitled Crack, which recounts the story of a “furgonauta”, a term he uses to describe a night-time lorry driver. Pauletto knows the trade well, being himself a night driver who works four days a week in order to dedicate the remaining time to writing and reading. Born in 1982 in Carate Brianza, a town in the province of Como, he holds a vocational school diploma and has attended writing courses at the Libreria Popolare in Milan.
In its statement, the jury described Crack as “a text that intensely and empathetically captures the existential landscape of a night-time transporter, a ‘furgonauta’ behind the wheel of his vehicle, torn between haunting family memories and self-destructive urges, culminating in a dramatic final breakdown. A raw yet fluid writing style effectively sustains the narrative. A fresh and necessary perspective on the darker corners of today’s world of work.”
In an interview with the daily newspaper La Provincia di Como, Pauletto made clear that this is not an autobiographical novel and explained how he works: during his night journeys between Como and Arezzo, he jots down thoughts at service stations, transcribes them onto his phone, and later reworks them at home on his computer. In this way, before Crack, he wrote several short stories published in literary magazines, and the novel itself grew out of one of those pieces.
