The French Literary Prize Goncourt was awarded on Tuesday in Paris to writer Jean-Baptiste Andrea for his novel “Veiller sur elle”, published by the “Leconoclast” publishing house, which is a love story in the time of fascism.
Announcement
The 52-year-old novelist won the award in the fourteenth session, which reflects disagreements within the literary award’s jury headed by Didier Duquin, whose vote counts as two votes.
The writer, who appeared very emotional upon his arrival at the “Drouane” restaurant, where he received his award like his predecessors more than a century ago, said, “It is a very important emotional moment. We just wiped away our tears in the taxi.”
Andrea competed for the award with Eric Renart, who was the favourite, and Gaspard König and Neige Sinno, who received the Femina Award on Monday.
Andrea has only four novels, and won the prestigious French literary award thanks to the painting his book paints about Italy and the art of sculpture.
Goncourt 2023
For her part, novelist Anne Scott (58 years old) won the French Renaudot Literary Prize on Tuesday for her novel “Les Insolents” (The Insolent Ones), published by Kalman Lévy, which tells the story of a forty-year-old woman leaving Paris.
The winning novel tells the story of Alex, a film music composer who decides to leave the French capital to rediscover herself, in light of her desire to live “somewhere else alone.”
This character is an imagined version of the author who left Paris for the Brittany region in western France, where she currently lives.
Born to a Russian photographer mother and a French art collector father, Anne Scott grew up in Paris before moving to London at the age of seventeen.
She was a model, a drummer in a punk band, and a regular at Parisian underground nightlife. She began writing when she was twenty-nine years old, and she has several novels to her credit, including “Asphyxie” (“Asphyxie”) and “Superstar” (“Superstar”).
Scott was not one of the favorites to win the Ronaudo Prize, an award for which Gaspard König (“Humus” by L’Observatoire), Lilia Hussein (“Panorama” by Gallimard) and Sorge Chalandon (“L’Enrage” by Gallimard) were also nominated. Dar Grasset).
The prize for the best book in the genre of literary essay was awarded to Jean-Luc Barry for the first volume, with more than 900 pages, of the autobiography “De Gaulle, une vie: l’homme de personne (1890-1944)”, published by Grasset.
The Ronaudo Pocket Book Prize was awarded to Manuel Carcassonne for his book “Le Retournement”.
