The writer Eshkol Nevo receives the ‘Story in a Novel’ Award

The Crédit Agricole Prize ‘The story in a novel 2026’ – the reasons explain – is awarded to the writer Eshkol Nevo “for having been able to transform the great story into an intimate experience, showing how the most dramatic collective events and fractures of our time are reflected in the daily lives, affections, desires and fears of ordinary people. In his novels, Israel is never just a geographical or political background, but a human laboratory crossed by conflicts, hopes and universal questions. Through friendships, loves, families and separations, Nevo tells of a society marked by history, but still capable of imagining the future. With a clear and deeply empathetic style, he has given voice to the complexity of contemporary identities, showing how behind every private affair the great questions of coexistence, memory and belonging are hidden, in a time in which the risk is to reduce history to slogans and contrasts, Eshkol Nevo’s work reminds us that the novel remains one of the privileged places in which exercise understanding, doubt and listening to others, restoring literature to its most precious civil function”.

The Crédit Agricole Story in a Novel Award has been awarded over time to Arturo Peréz-Reverte, Abraham Yehoshua, Art Spiegelman, Alessandro Baricco, Ian McEwan, Martin Amis, Umberto Eco, Emmanuel Carrère, Javier Cercas, Wole Soyinka, Robert Harris, Svetlana Aleksievič, Olga Tokarczuk, Fernando Aramburu, Jhumpa Lahiri, Annie Ernaux, Azar Nafisi and in 2025 Ildefonso Falcones.

“There are nineteen editions of an award in which we deeply believe, because it preserves an idea dear to the Crédit Agricole group: culture is a common good and literature, today more than ever, represents a space of freedom, dialogue and respect for differences – declare from Crédit Agricole Italia –. Supporting the La storia in unnovel award, alongside Pordenonelegge, means underlining how the great questions of our time continue to find a platform in books of authentic in-depth analysis and that the task of a Group rooted in the territories like ours is also to contribute not only to the economic, but also to the civil and cultural growth of the communities in which it operates.

Eshkol Nevo will be awarded as part of pordenonelegge on Saturday 19 September, at 6pm, at the Teatro Verdi in Pordenone: he will also receive a silver thaler from Empress Maria Teresa of Austria, the emblem of the Crédit Agricole Prize ‘The story in a novel’, the forerunner of the euro, is a symbol of union and peaceful coexistence between peoples. The ceremony will be followed by a public meeting on the links between the novel and history: an opportunity to discuss themes dear to the Israeli writer, starting from his latest publications, published in Italy by Feltrinelli Gramma. “Nostalgia”, a re-edition of Nevo’s debut novel, was released last January: at the center of the plot is a couple of two young Jews, the year in which Prime Minister Rabin was assassinated; “The symmetry of desires”, re-edited last year, is the story of four friends waiting for the final of the football World Cup in 1998; “Legami” (2024), which the author presented at the penultimate edition of pordenonelegge, inspired Nanni Moretti’s new film “It will happen tonight”, released in theaters on 3 December.

Eshkol Nevo was born in Jerusalem in 1971. Among the best-known Israeli writers on the international literary scene, he teaches creative writing at various institutions. His books, winners of numerous literary prizes, have been translated into 14 languages. Among his works published in Italy are “Neuland” (2012), “Soli e perduti” (2015), “Tre piani” (2017), “L’ultimo interviewed” (2020) and “Le vie dell’Eden” (2022). For Feltrinelli Gramma, “Legami” (2024), “La simmetria dei ordini” (2025) and “Nostalgia” (2026) were released.