The writer was rewarded this Thursday for her novel evoking the death of her husband in a motorcycle accident. She emerges as the winner from a list of finalists which included Giuliano da Empoli, Cloé Korman and Makenzy Orcel.
And the Goncourt 2022 edition prize was awarded to Brigitte Giraud. With his novel Vivre vite, the writer emerged victorious from a list of finalists which also included Giuliano da Empoli, Cloé Korman and Makenzy Orcel. As tradition dictates, the Académie Goncourt announced its choice this Thursday at lunchtime at the Drouant restaurant in Paris.
Brigitte Giraud touched the jurors with Vivre vite (Flammarion), returning to the spiral of improbable events that led to the death of her husband in a motorcycle accident in 1999. This Lyonnaise sometimes included in the selections of the prizes of fall with other novels didn’t expect this particular book to go this far.
Giuliano Da Empoli does not do the double
The predictions went rather to the Italian-Swiss Giuliano da Empoli, seen as a favorite with Le Mage du Kremlin (Gallimard), a staggering account of the mental system and the warrior logic of Vladimir Poutine, … until he obtained the Grand Prix of the novel of the French Academy last week. Because the two Academies hardly appreciate each other and hold to the singularity of their choice. Up to now doubles have always been rare. Another foreign author, the American Jonathan Littell (later naturalized French), achieved this in 2006 with his fresco on an SS officer, Les Bienveillantes. Patrick Rambaud also, in 1997 with La Bataille, on a Napoleonic battle.
Especially since a “Decoin case law”, named after the president of the Goncourt Academy Didier Decoin, wants the same book not to obtain two different autumn prizes. Just before handing over the Goncourt 2021, he explained to AFP: “We must not forget our friends and allies who are the booksellers. If we give two prizes to a single book, that only makes one book in the window”. Christine Angot, finalist with Le Voyage dans l’Est, was content with the Prix Médicis obtained eight days earlier.
In any case, Giuliano da Empoli did not bother with this question when receiving his prize under the Dome of the French Academy. Published in April, and not at the beginning of August, he had no idea of claiming any prize with his first novel.
The Renaudot for Simon Liberati
Cloé Korman has also won over other Drouant friends with her investigation of child victims of the Shoah, The Almost Sisters (Seuil). This 39-year-old Normalienne has done little promotion, busy with her work with the Minister of National Education, Pap Ndiaye. In September, he was delighted that his “adviser in charge of speeches had been chosen in the first selection”. But the novel was overtaken this week by a controversy, which Télérama for example echoed, concerning the appropriation by the novelist of testimonies around which her book is built.
The surprise could also have come from the Haitian Makenzy Orcel, not really a headliner of the literary season. Monologue from beyond the grave of 600 pages, A human sum would have been the first Goncourt of its publisher, Rivages (a subsidiary of Actes Sud). And a huge honor for this French-speaking Caribbean country with a rich literary tradition.
The Goncourt, whose jury includes seven men and three women, is the most prestigious of French literary prizes. Issued just before the Christmas holiday period, it provides its winner with very comfortable sales, in the hundreds of thousands of copies, a far cry from the circulation of the four finalists today. The reward comes with a check for ten euros, which the beneficiaries prefer to frame rather than deposit in the bank. According to a ranking published by Livres Hebdo in January, Goncourt 2021, The most secret memory of men by Senegalese Mohamed Mbougar Sarr, sold 378,219. The fifth best-selling book of the year 2021.
As tradition dictates, the Renaudot prize was awarded just after the Goncourt on Thursday, in the same restaurant in the Opéra district in Paris, to the writer Simon Liberati for his novel Performance. Five other finalists were in the running: Sandrine Collette, Nathan Devers, Sibylle Grimbert, Claudie Hunzinger and Christophe Ono-dit-Biot.
