The winner of the Goncourt for high school students will be known on November 23. In the meantime, nine classes from Brittany, Pays de Loire and Normandy had the privilege of meeting around ten authors competing for the literary prize. “With very direct, and sometimes destabilizing, questions…”
“Do you think we’re all a bit like earthworms?”, “I have a question about page 20…”
One month before the Goncourt Prize for high school students is awarded, hundreds of student members of the jury came to sift through the competing authors and their novels.
Candid or extremely pointed, the questions abound in the Rennes cinema where nine classes, from Brittany but also from Caen or Niort, took their place for this seventh and final day of meetings organized with writers in various cities in France .
Many wonder about the relationship between reality and fiction, about the part of themselves that the authors have put in their book.
“When did you discover your mother’s Nazi past?”says a high school student to Cécile Desprairies, a historian specializing in the Occupation who explores in “La Propagandiste” the role of the women in her own family during this period.
“I always knew but I couldn’t put it into words (…) It took me time, adulthood”, replies the author.
Dialogue quickly begins between the Goncourt candidates and their budding readers.
“What is the impact of the novel for young people?” asks a teenager to Gaspard Koenig, whose book “Humus” addresses the ecological crisis through two agronomy students and the crucial role of earthworms for the earth.
“It’s up to me to ask you the question. It’s a novel which is aimed more at people who are hesitant, I would like to hear from you”retorts the novelist, who will have these exchanges during the signing session.
“Meeting authors is very different than choosing a book in a library. Seeing them and talking to them is going beyond words”summarizes Jenna-Emilie, 1st grade student at the Pierre Mendès-France high school in Rennes, her eyes shining.
“I read a lot but not too much of this type of novel, more fantasy. It makes me discover other things that I wouldn’t have thought of looking at“, explains her classmate Deryn, for whom “it is a source of pride, and a great responsibility too” to participate in the Goncourt for high school students.
“Hearing other students talk about a book with enthusiasm can make some people want to read”assures Marc Lecoustre, librarian professor in Rennes.
“We have the right not to get to the end of a book when we don’t get hooked” but it’s interesting to be able to say why we didn’t like it, adds Caroline Derlyn, her fellow literature teacher.
“Some students will just read one book as they were asked, but I have others who have gone to read the 16 novels in the selection” with the aim of being part of the final jury on November 23, she explains.
The winner will be announced that day in Rennes, cradle of this prize, a leader in terms of sales.
The experience is also very enriching for the authors who held a series of meetings during the month of October to defend their copy before this very involved jury.
“It’s a great discovery and it’s exciting. We must never forget who our readers are,” believes Cécile Desprairies.
“It means a lot to me,” confirms Antoine Sénanque, author of “Croix de cendre”.
“My book talks about the plague in the Middle Ages, about a great philosopher of this period, Master Eckhart. I said to myself ‘frankly, high school students are not the public’. In reality I was totally wrong!”, he smiled.
“They ask very direct questions, sometimes destabilizing, these are not at all the questions we usually ask. The high school students do not hesitate to go into the privacy of the authors”notes Antoine Sénanque, who speaks of a “rejuvenation treatment”.
These meetings will “change something in my way of writing, maybe it will be more welcoming to young people. High school students will surely participate in my next book in a more or less conscious way”affirms the novelist.
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