César Aira, Adriana Riva, Inés Garland, Jorge Consiglio, and Liliana Heker are among the finalists for a $5 million prize.

Every year for the past six years, the Medifé Filba Foundation Award aims to become a " compass that guides reading in the local publishing world, selecting novels that stand out for their tone, plot, and style." To that end, a jury composed of María Moreno, Alejandra Kamiya, and Alan Pauls will determine which of the ten books on the "long list" for this competition will win the five million pesos, which could end up in the hands of Matías Aldaz, Ariel Magnus, Inés Garland, Martín Sancia Kawamichi, César Aira, Jorge Consiglio, Carmen M. Cáceres, Liliana Heker, Adriana Riva, and Santiago Craig.

“In a very complex context where sales and circulations have declined, the publishing industry is resilient. This year, the Medifé Filba Foundation Award received 170 novels from 94 publishers, demonstrating that the sector continues to support local writers and the proposals and tensions inherent to contemporary Argentine literature,” explained the competition organizers.

The next step will take place in October, when the jury will determine the five titles on the shortlist , and finally, in November, will decide on the winning novel.

For now, these are the ten works that are vying for the award: Something Nobody Did , by Matías Aldaz, published by El Gran Pesque; Continuity by Emma Z. , by Ariel Magnus, published by Interzona Editora; Diary of a Move , by Inés Garland, published by Alfaguara; The Birch of Karlok , by Martín Sancia Kawamichi, published by Salta El Pez Ediciones; In Thought , by César Aira, published by Literatura Penguin Random House; The Circumstance , by Jorge Consiglio, published by Eterna Cadencia Editora; The Fiction of Saving , by Carmen M. Cáceres, published by Fiordo; News about the Iceberg , by Liliana Heker, published by Alfaguara; Ruth , by Adriana Riva, published by Seix Barral; and Life in Marta, by Santiago Craig, published by Tusquets Editores.

The contest organizers evaluated the merits of each book. They considered:

Something Nobody Did by Matías Aldaz is a novel that narrates, in fragments, the vestiges of a people who have disappeared in abandonment. With a special work with the language (a mix of Guaraní, Portuguese, and German), the narrator moves between his memories, the echoes of a place that no longer exists, and the voices of those who are no longer with us.

In line with fragmentary writing is Inés Garland's Diario de una mudanza (Diary of a Move). The protagonist moves house and, through this metaphor, narrates the death of her father, the life her daughter begins when she goes to live alone, and the process she is going through: menopause. In a style that mixes essay, diary writing, and literary reflections, Inés Garland gives voice to someone who doesn't usually have one : a woman who, well into her fifties, continues to transform and must redefine her identity based on a new body.

In Ruth , Adriana Riva gives voice to an 82-year-old woman who experiences old age with the desired solitude and impunity afforded by age and experience. A vital woman, devoted to her friends and moments of pleasure like visiting museums. The text narrates the passage of time, a slower and more aching body, but one that continues to move , at its own pace, toward the connections and spaces that make her happy.

Greta, a 77-year-old writer who had her moment of success four decades ago and hasn't been able to write down an idea that moves her in 20 years, is the protagonist of News on an Iceberg by Liliana Heker . Greta shares her perspective on the passage of time and the change of desire, as well as her literary reflections, the creative process when writing, and the impossibility of confronting the text.

Ariel Magnus's novel, Continuity of Emma Z, falls into an experimental literary vein. The story is a reinterpretation, or rather an extension, of Borges's short story "Emma Zunz," in which Magnus imagines the life of the protagonist, now married and with a child, interweaving the plot with authors such as Julio Cortázar and Juan Carlos Onetti. In the author's words , it is a "transtextual" novel in which characters from reality coexist with those from fiction.

The Birch of Karlok , by Martín Sancia Kawamichi, evokes the fables and legends of centuries past. In a timeless story, the feudal lord Metz promises his daughter Anika in marriage to the heir Englz to settle a debt. However, Anika disappears. The universe of the novel refers to a medieval world, traversed by a vision of evil, beauty, and brokenness, through an experimental and original literary exercise.

In El Pensamiento , by César Aira, the author evokes his childhood in a small town near Coronel Pringles. Through a handful of memories that come together to tell the story of a boy, his mother, his father, and his tutor, a mystery plot is constructed: a train engine traveling from Rosario to Bahía Blanca disappears in the middle of the road, near El Pensamiento. The story is 100 percent Airan: with ellipses, humor, and no obviousness , leaving gaps that are filled in during reading.

In In Circumstance , Jorge Consiglio gives voice to an eccentric rural aristocratic woman who confesses to a crime. In this story, she returns to her childhood as a wealthy girl in the countryside, to her family and her ranch, to successive economic crises and her relationship with art and business, traversing the tensions between the countryside and the city, and civilization and barbarism. The book explores the boundaries of morality, violence, and indifference, especially social.

And just as La Circunstancia narrates the Argentine upper class in Carmen Cáceres's The Fiction of Savings focuses on the middle class and its complex relationship with money. Set in 2001, the story begins with a distinctly Argentine scene: the narrator tapes bundles of dollars to her body to prevent them from being stolen after withdrawing them from the family safe deposit box. Original and fresh in its plot, The Fiction of Savings is an urban portrait of the province—Posadas—where time, relationships, and the relationship with money are completely different—but no less complex and disparate—than those of the capital.

As its title suggests, Vida en Marta is a narrative from birth to death of Marta. Its author, Santiago Craig , brings to life a woman who recounts her life without incident. Like a series of important events and others inconsequential, like life itself, her story works by accumulation. The life of a woman who did nothing extraordinary, but who, like all women, has something to tell , something to remember.

Among these titles is the one that will accompany the winners of previous editions: The Last Falcon on Earth , by Juan Ignacio Pisano (Baltasara Editora, 2019) and The Plains by Federico Falco (Editorial Anagrama, 2020), Materials for a Nightmare by Juan Mattio (Aquilina Editions, 2021), The Eye of Goliath by Diego Muzzio (Editorial Entropía, 2023) and The Girls of the Orange Grove by Gabriela Cabezón Cámara (Penguin Random House Literature, 2024)