Philosopher and novelist Arià Paco (Igualada, 1993) has found in fiction the medium to explore the relationships of his generation. After receiving the Roc Boronat Award in 2022 for Coward, old woman, so wild (Amsterdam), the writer has been awarded this year with the 10th Anagrama Books for his third novel, Game theory, which traces how a Catalan millennium lives and thinks – and overthinks – guilt and desire.

American author Kay Hymowitz wrote the essay Manning up In 2011, Hymowitz describes a new stage of life, pre-adulthood, a period between adolescence and adulthood, which she links to prolonged education, difficulty accessing credit, postponing family formation, and the digital leisure culture. Hymowitz describes how this new phenomenon has had a more negative impact on men, since women have a clearer biological clock, which warns us when it's time for pre-adulthood to end. It should not be forgotten that access to a well-paid job or owning a home have become undertakings worthy of Frodo Saquet and the Fellowship of the Ring. Hymowitz then argues that, without a clear life plan, many young men easily become trapped in a "man-creature" culture: they enjoy the privileges of adulthood (sex, consumption, freedom of movement) but avoid the obligations (own finances, family, caregiving).

Game theory studies, in a decision, what is the optimal choice for an individual when the costs and benefits of each option are not predetermined, but depend on the choices of other individuals. Arià Paco's novel, the latest Anagrama Books Award winner, could be defined as the playful embodiment of this theory: a philosophical and literary experiment that is both the portrait of a generation and a treatise on the relationships between the individuals within it. An experiment that has turned out remarkably well, especially considering the difficulty of the challenge posed by the writer from Igualada, who had already written a good novel about his city: Coward, old woman, so wild. If there he skillfully and vigorously outlined the end of youth and the form of bonded friendship, here he aims to write the First Great Novel on a concept as slippery and one that has oozed as much ink as New Masculinities.