The 2024 edition of the Jean-Lacouture 2024 prize goes to the journalist Frédéric Lemaître for his work Five years in Xi Jinping’s Chinapublished by Tallandier. Created in 2021, this distinction rewards a French-speaking journalist whose book is part of the legacy of Bordelais Jean Lacouture, historian, writer and also journalist.
The president of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine Regional Council Alain Roussetat the origin of the prize, is delighted with the choice of the awarding jury “the finesse of a pen in the service of nuanced analysis of a country and an era: China at the time of the outbreak of Covid. »
In this work, the author recounts his five years of life in Beijing from 2018 to 2023. He sheds light on the daily life of this society, subject to profound transformations. The pandemic, the increase in unemployment, the slowdown in growth or even the possibility of a war over Taiwan do not taint the feeling of living in a very modern country, shared by the majority of Chinese.
Award ceremony on November 20 in Bordeaux
Frédéric Lemaître is also the author of several works including Understanding globalization (1986), The 35 hours (1998), Big bosses. The end of a world (Audibert editions, 2003).
The Jean-Lacouture Prize will be presented during the inaugural evening of the Tribunes de la Presse in Bordeaux on Wednesday, November 20.
The jury, chaired by Hubert Védrineconsisted ofAnne-Marie Cocula, Bernard Guetta, Elisabeth Guigou, Yves Harté, Jean-Noël Jeanneney et Claude-Catherine Kiejman.
Frédéric Lemaître succeeds Thomas Snégaroff2022 winner for Putz (Gallimard), and Florence Aubenas2023 winner for Here and elsewhere (The Olivier).
Books
