Fifth of its name and still in line with the French production of audio books, these literary objects which have gradually become established in the French literary landscape, the 2024 Ginkgo prize rewards Neige Sino, for “Triste tigre” (POL éditions).
Released in 2023, a literary phenomenon in its own right, the autobiographical novel which notably received the Femina, the Goncourt des lycéens and is translated into many languages, was almost unanimously approved by the jury composed of radio and print journalists, but also booksellers and executives and staff of the Pasteur clinic group, patron of the event.
In the absence of Rachida Brakni, actress, director and author who chaired the jury, the choice fell on “Triste tigre” published by Gallimard in the “Ecooutez Lire” collection. Such a moving chronicle and autopsy of the incest of which the author was a victim in her childhood, the story, which is also a confession, poses questions: how to tell the unspeakable when the rape and abuse struck more than seven years old during the life of a child? How to bring together story, testimony and literary essay to tell the story of incest? In “Triste Tigre”, Neige Sino, who reads her own text, questions herself, addresses the reader and draws on other literary works to recount the rapes inflicted by her stepfather when she was a child.
Also included in the list of ten audiobooks selected for the prize were:
• Francia, by Nancy Huston, read by herself and by Naëlle Dariya.
• Urushi, de Aki Shimazaki, lu par Alysson Paradis.
• Terraces, by Laurent Gaudé.
• Code 93, by Olivier Norek, read by Cédric Dumond.
• If everything did not perish with my innocence, by Emmanuelle Bayamack-Tam, read by Laure Calamy.
• The dancer, by Patrick Modiano, read by Denis Podalydes.
• The Next Time You Bite the Dust, by Panayotis Pascot, read by Gabriel Bismuth-Bienaimé.
• Louisiana, by Julia Malye, read by Valérie Muzzi and Mona’s Eyes, by Thomas Schlesser, read by François Cognard.
The Ginkgo prize will be awarded during the Livre sur la Place next September.
