For its first opening day at the Cac, the Livre & Mer festival got off to a flying start by revealing, this Friday evening, November 8, 2024, the winners of its two literary awards. A moment always appreciated and awaited by lovers of fine literature.
The Henri-Queffélec prize for this 39th edition was awarded to Vincent Delecroix for his latest novel “Naufrage”, published by Gallimard. This was elected by a jury made up of several readers, chaired this year by Bruno d'Halluin, out of a total of five preselected Books. And despite a fine selection, it is clear that the work was unanimous among the jurors. “He each time finished first or second among the members of the jury,” underlined the honorary president of the festival, praising the “beautiful writing” of the 2024 winner, who succeeds Grégory Nicolas.
Inspired by a true event
In “Shipwreck”, the writer and philosopher Vincent Delecroix is inspired by a terrible tragedy: that of the sinking of a migrant boat in the English Channel in November 2021, causing the death of 27 people. Since this real event, the author has imagined the portrait, this time fictional, of the operator of the surveillance center, who did not send help. “The book leads us to reflect on both individual and collective responsibility,” said Bruno d’Halluin.
Absent this Friday in Concarneau, the winner nevertheless wanted to send his thanks to the public via the broadcast of a video. In it, Vincent Delecroix said he was “happy and touched” by this distinction. Referring to a book that was “very dear” to him, the author recalled “that the sea was not simply” in his novel “an environment or a setting, but perhaps the main character”.
A trip to the French coast
The Beau Livre maritime prize awarded by the City of Concarneau was won by Marine Le Breton for “Cartes Marines”, published by E/P/A. She competed among eight participants. The book, prefaced by Miossec, offers precise mapping of the French coastline through 130 maps drawn entirely by hand by the artist-cartographer, originally from Normandy.
The work is also accompanied by three leaflets and bookplates which represent several emblematic French coasts. Neither a tourist guide, nor an atlas, nor an academic work, “Cartes Marines” is intended to be an invitation to a new journey on our coastline. “Very moved” when receiving her prize, Marine Le Breton spoke of the genesis of her project, initially thought of “as a withdrawal, a subtraction from the world”, but which, “paradoxically, was seen by many people”.
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