Jean-Baptiste Andrea won the Goncourt for on Tuesday take care of hera fresco of more than 500 pages that brings together the history of Italy in the 20th centurye Century, a thwarted love and passion for art; The novel was published by a small publisher, L’Iconoclaste.
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The 52-year-old writer was elected in the 14th round, evidence of the disagreements within the jury chaired by Didier Decoin, whose vote counts double. He faced the most prestigious French-language literary prize, Éric Reinhardt, who is considered the favorite, Gaspard Koenig and Neige Sinno, who received the Femina Prize on Monday.
“It’s an extraordinary moment and I didn’t think I would ever experience this in my life,” exclaimed Jean-Baptiste Andrea over lunch near Drouant, the restaurant where the Goncourt has traditionally been awarded since 1914.
“I think of all the children who dream about it and say to themselves: I can’t do it. I want to tell them: Be unreasonable.” “Art is freedom. I always believed in romance, it was never dead, romance,” he added, before paying tribute to his editor Sophie de Sivry, who died in May.
Veiller sur elle is the fourth novel by Jean-Baptiste Andrea, who made his first steps in the cinema before devoting himself to literature late in life, six years ago.
This fresco about sculpture and Italy was awarded the Fnac Prize at the beginning of the school year.
The work traces the story of two characters: Mimo, who was born poor and apprenticed to a stone sculptor, and Viola Orsini, ambitious heiress to a respected family, who enter into a love affair in the midst of Italy’s upheaval under fascism.
The Goncourt Prize guarantees significant sales in the last two months of the year, the most important for booksellers. On average they reach around 400,000 copies.
But Goncourt 2022, Vivre vite, by Brigitte Giraud, disappointed at this level, falling short of 300,000 copies.
Last round
Last year, too, the winner was only determined in the very last round; the most influential publisher of French letters, Gallimard, was overtaken at the last minute. Éric Reinhardt, the author who was a favorite of Sarah, Susanne and the writer for many, was published by this publisher.
Immediately after Goncourt and also in the Drouant restaurant, the Renaudot jury announced its 2023 prize, which will be awarded to Ann Scott, 58, for her novel “Les Insolents” (Calmann-Lévy editions).
The novel tells of the arrival “in the middle of nowhere” of Alex, a film music composer, who decides to leave the capital to reinvent herself and live “elsewhere and alone.” The character is a fictional double of the author, a former Queen of Paris Nights based in Brittany (West).
Born to a Russian photographer and a French art collector, Ann Scott grew up in Paris before moving to London at 17. She was a model and a drummer in a punk band. She began writing at the age of 29, notably the novel Asphyxia and then Superstar.
The essay prize was awarded to Jean-Luc Barré for the first volume of a comprehensive biography of over 900 pages: “De Gaulle, a life: the man of no one” (1890-1944), published by Grasset.
The Renaudot Paperback Prize went to Manuel Carcassonne for Le Retournement.