For its penultimate issue, the 15th, the magazine America awards its literary of the year prize to Tiffany McDaniel for his novel Betty (Gallmeister), translated by François Happe. The American author has already been distinguished by the Fnac novel prize and topped the booksellers’ list in the foreign literature category. It is one of the three novels of the fall ranked in the Top 20 of the best sales for more than a month.
Francois Busnel says about the winner’s novel: “There are sublime novels that leave you in a state of bewilderment and take you to unsuspected heights. This is the case of this book which won the America prize unanimously. Betty is a dazzling. I take the bets: a future classic of American literature.”
Betty Carpenter, known as The Little Indian, was born in a bathtub, the sixth of eight children. His family lives on the fringes of society because, while his mother is white, his father is Cherokee. When the Carpenters settle in the small town of Breathed, after years of wandering, the lush Ohio landscape seems to bring them peace. Along with her siblings, Betty grows up cradled by the timeless magic of her father’s stories. But the darkest secrets of the family are revealed little by little. To face the world of adults, Betty draws her courage in writing: she confides her pain in pages that she buries underground over the years. So that one day, all these stories become one, that she can finally reveal.
The America Prize selection
To compose the ideal library for this fall, America magazine has chosen nine other titles:
– This bond between us, by David Joy (Sonatine), translated by Fabrice Pointeu;
– The Other Half of Self, by Brit Bennett (Autrement), translated by Karine Lalechère;
– Nickel Boys, by Colson Whitehead (Albin Michel), translated by Charles Recoursé;
– Inland, by Téa Obreht (Calmann-Lévy), translated by Blandine Longre;
– Sublime Kingdom, by Yaa Gyasi (Calmann-Lévy), translated by Anne Damour;
– Balèze, by Kiese Laymon (Les Escales), translated Emmanuelle and Philippe Aronson;
– American Dirt, by Jeannine Cummins (Philippe Rey), translated by Françoise Adelstein and Christine Auché;
– Fracture, by Eliza Griswold (Globe Editions), translated by Séverine Weiss;
– Holy death, by Gabino Iglesias (Sonatine), translated by Pierre Szczeciner.
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In bookstores and newsstands on October 7, the 15th issue ofAmerica, a magazine co-founded by François Busnel and Eric Fottorino, has a circulation of 63,000 copies. This quarter, the magazine looks at the reign of money, the stakes of the presidential election, and also offers a great interview with Salman Rushdie and an unpublished short story by Tom Wolfe.
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