Writer Brigitte Giroud wins the Goncourt, the most prestigious French literary prize, for her novel Living quickly. And compatriot Simone Liberati won the Ronodo Award.
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Writer Brigitte Giroud with journalists after the announcement of the award
French writer Brigitte Giroud won the Goncourt Prize for her novel Living quickly.
The prize was awarded on the 14th ballot, after drawing a tie with Giuliano da Empoli, author of “The Wizard of the Kremlin”, and the name of the winner was decided after commission member Didier DeQuinn voted for Giroud.
The head of the Goncourt Academy indicated that he would prefer not to award a book with two different prizes, to support authors and booksellers. Empoli was awarded a few days ago with the “French Academy”.
Living Fast describes the sequence of the life devastated by the death of Claude, the companion of the narrator, who died in 1999 in a motorcycle accident. Happiness suddenly vanishes, while the ink has not yet dried on the act of buying the house they dreamed of in Lyon.
Writer Brigitte Giroud thanked the jury for “reading a book the press said was intimate.” In her first impressions after her victory, she told the press: “It seems to me that intimacy has meaning only if it is connected to others, if it resonates with community, community and history.”
As proof of this, he explained that when his victory was announced, he was at home “Flamarion” with his publisher and “all the people who worked to publish this book”, and the judgment was greeted with “shouts. of joy “. “We told each other that the best thing about screaming is screaming together,” she added.
In this novel, Giroux reinvents the machine to change the past and decorate the future, but the reader has only one desire: to console the narrator by telling him: “You can’t help him. It’s destiny.”
Brigitte Giroud is the 13th writer to win the Goncourt, compared to 107 male winners since the award began in 1904. She succeeds the Senegalese writer Mohamed Mboggar Sarr, who was crowned last year.
“Goncourt”, whose jury includes 7 men and 3 women, is considered the most prestigious French literary prize and its victory is usually followed by the request of the readers to buy the winning novel, which sells hundreds of thousands of copies.
As for the competitor of the Giro, the Italian-Swiss Giuliano De Empoli (49 years old), nominated for his novel “The Wizard of the Kremlin” published by “Galimar”, was considered among the most probable contenders, but he will be satisfied with the great prize for the novel, which he obtained a few days before the French Academy.
For the second consecutive year, rich Haitian literature was selected for the award, but failed to receive it, as MacKenzie Ursell failed to win it for his 600-page novel “Human Sum”, which is about the world after death.
Chloe Corman (39) also competed for the prize for her novel “Almost Sisters,” published by Sui House, in which she investigates her father’s female relatives who were victims of the Nazi Holocaust. Corman is advisor to the French Minister of National Education, Bab Ndiaye.
Ronodo Award to Liberati
As usual, the Ronodo Prize was awarded immediately after the proclamation of the winner Goncourt, at the Drouin restaurant in Paris. The award went to Simon Liberati for “Performance”, the story of which revolves around a 70-year-old author who rediscovers his passion by writing a screenplay for the Rolling Stones, and establishes a relationship with a woman 50 years younger than him. Liberty got 6 votes from the jury members.
Literary awards generally have great economic importance, as well as moral, as they inspire those who want to discover a novel or give it away during the holiday season. A book that wins the Prix Goncourt leads to hundreds of thousands of sales.
As per tradition, Giroud also received a check with a symbolic value of 10 euros, which the recipient generally prefers to frame as a souvenir.
