This Monday, June 5th, the jury of the 49th edition of the literary prize honored a text “carried by a writing of great emotional power” and signed by the author, who was born in 1973.
The jury of the 49th Inter Book Prize, chaired this year by David Foenkinos, awarded their prize to Mathieu Belezi for his latest novel Attacking the Earth and the Sun (ed. Le Tripode). A gripping, short and concise text about the first years of the French colonization of Algeria. Announcing this news this Monday, June 5th, the president of the jury at France Inter praised a book “supported by a writing of great emotional power”. Invited on public radio at 8:20 a.m., the author said he was “satisfied” with the reward: “I was very happy with the selection, but the price seemed out of reach to me.”
“Attack the Earth and the Sun”, published by Le Tripode Editions in August 2022, had already received the literary prize from another medium, that of the newspaper Le Monde, in September.
Mathieu Belezi, Inter 2023 Book Prize: “I live quite far from the Parisian literary world, I live quite cut off: I was very happy to be in the selection, but the prize seemed out of reach to me!” #le7930inter pic.twitter.com/2n26MZrwhp
– France Inter (@franceinter) June 5, 2023
As he told Libération in March, on the advice of his companion Cécile, Mathieu Belezi tried his luck and sent his manuscript to the small publisher Le Tripode. Without really believing it. Two days later he received a call from Frédéric Martin, the founder of Tripode in 2012. The young publisher was intrigued by the text and said he was ready to schedule it for the next literary season, five months later. Even better: after a few weeks he had read the entire work of Mathieu Belezi, some of which was out of print, and told him that he wanted to publish it again.
Born in 1953, Mathieu Belezi studied geography in Limoges before moving to Louisiana to teach. A great traveler, he set out to discover Mexico, Nepal, India and finally Greece. In 1998 he published his first novel, Le Petit Roi. In 1999 he decided to devote himself to writing full-time and gave up his job as a teacher. Since 2004 he lives between Rome and Paris.
The special feature of the Inter Book Prize is that it is awarded by a jury consisting of 24 listeners from public service broadcasters. For this 49th edition, they ranged in age from 23 to 77 years.