The presentation of the 34th Cabri d’Or, the literary prize of Alès Agglo and the Académie Cévenole, was held this Friday at the Atom building. A special discount, mainly by videoconference, which crowned the Haut-Savoyard author Patrice Gain, for The smile of the scorpion (ed. Le Mot and the rest).
It is an understatement to say that this award ceremony was special. In the room of the Atom, only the mayor of Alès, Max Roustan, and the president of Alès Agglo, Christophe Rivenq, were in person, the jury and the finalist authors being projected by videoconference behind them. Not enough to weaken the enthusiasm of the two elected officials, who will each in turn greet “National scope” taken by the Cévennes literary prize. It must be said that renowned authors and prestigious publishers participate in the Cabri d’Or, prestige which reflects on the price.
The opportunity also for Christophe Rivenq to declare his love for culture and reading, taking the example of the new Alès media library under construction, and to remind that the price is “One of the best endowed, even the most endowed in France, with 5,000 euros for the winner. “
The jury, chaired for nine years by the editor ofTo hell with vauvert, Marion Mazauric, gives pride of place to the Cévennes Academy, but also to the Sauramps bookstore – Christophe Rivenq will take the opportunity to pay tribute to the bookseller Roberta Pouget, who is about to leave the bookstore and the territory – or even the library from Alès. “An incorruptible jury, even an hour before the presentation we do not know who won! “, will launch the bookseller.
“This prize is proof of the fact that literary prizes are not just Paris”, will then estimate Marion Mazauric, before saluting the quality and the diversity of the 2020 selection, composed of 16 books at the start. Four books stood out for the final round: On the blue summer evenings by Franck Pavloff (ed. Albin Michel), A Beast in Paradise by Cécile Coulon (Iconoclast ed.), The card of regrets by Nathalie Skrowronek (ed. Grasset) and therefore The smile of the scorpion by Patrice Gain (ed. Le Mot and the rest).
It was finally Patrice Gain who won for his “Disturbing thriller in a rough nature”, explains Marion Mazauric. Its success, the 59-year-old author, an environmental engineer in the civil sector, undoubtedly owes it to the fact that “Its pages on nature are magnificent. We find the Cévennes there in what they have more harsh and beautiful, and it is a social text, anchored in current issues ”, will continue the editor.
The author will then tell himself ” very honoured “ to win this award. “The Cévennes are a very inspiring territory, French Montana, which I know well and which I love to walk”, will affirm Patrice Gain then. This is his second literary prize in Gard, since he won the readers’ prize at the Villeneuve-lèz-Avignon thriller festival in 2019 for Tawny lands. A book that can therefore figure prominently under the tree!
Thierry allard
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