In France, the awards are piling up for Kevin Lambert and his novel “Que Notre Joie Stay,” which made it into the first selection for the Médicis Prize on Thursday, after having already been included in several lists in recent weeks.
Published at 8:40 am. Updated at 10:17 a.m.
Remember that the Quebec writer is also in the running for the Décembre Prize, the Goncourt Prize, the Goncourt des lycéens and the Blù-Jean-Marc Roberts Prize for his third novel, published last year in Quebec at Héliotrope and was recently published in “Hexagone” by the publisher Le Nouvel Attila.
Kevin Lambert’s first two novels also enjoyed great success in France; You’ll Love What You Killed was among the finalists for the Médicis Prize in 2021 and Querelle de Roberval in the first selection of the Médicis in 2019, as well as among the finalists for the Wepler Prize and the Le Monde literary prize – in addition to winning the Sade Prize.
“Let Our Joy Remain,” which chronicles the furor in which an internationally known architect is accused of driving the gentrification of neighborhoods, has generated a lot of ink over the months, and not just by accumulating chances to win one prestigious literary prize on the other side of the Atlantic. In Quebec last summer, the novel was at the center of a controversy surrounding François Legault. The Prime Minister received harsh criticism from the author after he complimented him on his book. Then, in early September, following his selection in Goncourt, he was again at the center of a controversy, this time criticized by French writer and Goncourt 2018 Nicolas Mathieu, who criticized him for using a sensitive reader when re-reading the novel.
Other titles stand out
The Frenchwoman Neige Sinno is also on this first Medici list with her autobiographical book “Sad Tiger”, about the incest of which she was a victim. He won the Le Monde literary prize earlier this month and is also in the running for Goncourt, Femina, Décembre and Flore.
As for foreign novels, in this first selection from the Medici was also found a translation of La Peuplade: To my brother, by EL Karhu (translated from Finnish by Claire Saint-Germain).
The Medici Prize will announce the titles of the finalist novels on October 18, while the winner will be announced on November 9, two days after the Goncourt.
First selection of French and Francophone novels
- Dominique Barberis, A Way to Love (Gallimard)
- Sarah Chiche, The Alchemies (Threshold)
- Ananda Devi, The Day of the Chameleons (Grasset)
- Négar Djavadi, The Last Place (Stock)
- Lionel Duroy, My Steps into Their Shadows (Mialet-Barrault)
- Salma El Moumni, Farewell Tanger (Grasset)
- Kevin Lambert, May our joy endure (The New Attila)
- Eden Levin, Thursday (Notabilia)
- Hugo Lindenberg, The Imaginary Night (Flammarion)
- Lisette Lombé, Eunice (Seuil)
- Richard Morgiève, Mother’s Day (Joëlle Losfeld)
- Éric Reinhardt, Sarah, Susanne and the Writer (Gallimard)
- Snow Sinno, Sad Tiger (POL)
- Elisa Shua Dusapin, The Old Fire (Zoé)
- Antoine Wauters, The Shortest Path (Verdier)
First selection of foreign literature
- Nina Allan, Conquest (Tristram, UK)
- Tash Aw, foreigners on strike (Fayard, UK)
- Sebastian Barry, In God’s Good Old Days (Joëlle Losfeld, Ireland)
- Hila Blum, How to Love Your Daughter (Robert Laffont, Israel)
- Martina Clavadetscher, Three Soulmates (Zoé, Switzerland)
- Chris De Stoop, The Book of Daniel (Globe, Belgium)
- Federico Falco, The Plains (scribe, Spain)
- David Grann, The Castaways of the Wager (Basement, United States)
- Gouzel Iakhina, convoy to Samarkand (black on white, Russia)
- Lidia Jorge, Misericordia (Métailié, Portugal)
- Han Kang, Impossible Goodbyes (Grasset, South Korea)
- EL Karhu, To my brother (La Peuplade, Finland)
- Laszlo Krasznahorkai, Baron Weinckein is back (Cambourakis, Hungary)
- Kim de l’Horizon, purple beech (Julliard, Germany)
- Iva Pezuashvili, The Tbilisi Bunker (Emmanuelle Colas, Georgia)
- Robert Seethaler, The Nameless Café (Sabine Wespieser, Austria)
- Peter Stamm, The Archives of Feelings (Christian Bourgois, Switzerland)