The 2024-2025 selection for the high school literary prize – South Region

The comic book selection

Brancusi versus United States, Arnaud Nebbache (Dargaud)

1927. Constantin Brancusi, a Romanian sculptor whose reputation is becoming established, is invited to present his works as part of a major exhibition in New York. But once there, the sculptures do not pass through customs. One of them in particular raises the question, The Bird, considered as an industrial object and not as a work of art… Customs fees are soaring!! The ludicrous trial that follows raises the question: what is ultimately a work of art, when we speak of contemporary art?

Evils to say, Bea Lema (Sarbacane)– translated from Spanish by Jean-Marc Frémont

Vera lives in Galicia with her mother. At only four years old, she accompanied her to a number of “specialists”, supposedly empowered to ward off the demons that invaded their daily lives. By playing with patterns and colors, moving from embroidery to felt, sometimes incorporating a medical prescription, Bea Lema bears witness to the difficulty of growing up and building oneself alongside a parent suffering from mental illness. She says how the love she never stopped having for her mother probably saved them.

The Woman with the Star, Anthony Pastor (Casterman)

Montana, late 19th century. Zachary is being prosecuted for a crime he had no choice but to commit. The mountains, the cold… he takes refuge in a ruined village, said to be haunted, and there crosses paths with Perla, a sheriff’s star on her chest, also wanted. At first hostile to each other, the two fugitives will have to join forces to face fanatics ready to do anything to deliver what they consider to be justice. A thrilling snow western.

The little light, Gregory Panaccione(Delcourt)

“I came here to disappear,” says an old man as he retreats to an abandoned hamlet in the mountains of Lombardy. Not a living soul. From the top of his isolated retreat, however, every evening at the same time, a small light lights up in the heart of the forest, in the mountain facing him. What could this possibly be? Is she real or just a figment of her imagination? Is there anyone sending him a sign? Gregory Panaccione adapts the magnificent novel by Antonio Moresco published by Verdier, selected for the Literary Prize in 2016.

Paper Birds, Mana Neyestani (çà & la) –translated from Persian by Massoumeh Lahidji

In Iranian Kurdistan, Jalal must flee with his beloved, promised to someone else. To do this he needs money and joins an expedition of “kolbars”, smugglers hired to smuggle Western products into Iraq at the risk of their lives. Crushed by loads that are far too heavy, taking extremely dangerous, almost suicidal routes, they are mercilessly hunted down by border guards. Jalal and his team will try to arrive safely and thwart the disastrous fate that seems to await them.