The Franco-Moroccan novelist Rachid Benzine received “The Grand Prix du Novel Métis 2024” for his book “Les silences des pères”, published in 2023 by “Seuil”.
Created in 2010, “The Grand Prix du Roman Métis”, an international literary distinction from the city of Saint-Denis de la Réunion, rewards a French-speaking novel published less than a year ago and conveying the values of cross-breeding, diversity, cultural, humanistic and universal exchanges.
Thus, Rachid Benzine was rewarded, on Reunion Island, with the Grand Prix du Novel Métis 2024. As for the Franco-Rwandan author Beata Mother Mairesseshe won the Métis Novel Prize from Readers of the City of Saint-Denis 2024 for “The Convoy » (Flammarion).
The jury also awarded a special mention to the novel by Éric Chacour, “What I know about you” (Philippe Rey). Chacour is a young literary talent born in Montreal to Egyptian parents, who divides his life between France and Quebec.
The winners will be presented with their prize on December 3 at Château Morange (Saint-Denis de La Réunion), announce the organizers.
The novel by Rachid Benzine “The silences of the fathers” tells the complex relationship between a son and his father, made up of silence and missed appointments. It is the story of a son who returns, after the death of his father, and retraces the latter’s life journey, a taciturn man, a worker by trade, recruited by the Charbonnages de France, at the beginning of the 1990s. 1960.
Between father and son, silences and misunderstandings
This son, Amine, the narrator, is a famous pianist who has no longer maintained ties with his father since he led an international career. After the death of the father, the son must empty the family apartment in Trappes. He discovers by chance, hidden under the bathtub, a large envelope containing audio cassettes. His father, to communicate with the grandfather who remained in Morocco, recorded his message then posted it. These audio letters all begin with “My dear father”.
Rachid Benzine was born on January 5, 1971 in Kenitra, Morocco. He is a Franco-Moroccan Islamologist, playwright and political scientist. He is considered one of the important figures of French-speaking liberal Islam. He gained notoriety by launching, with Father Christian Delorme, the Islamic-Catholic dialogue in Lyon. From these exchanges a book will be born, “ We have so much to say to each other”published in 1998.
>> Read also: Morocco in the short lists of the Katara Prize for the Arabic novel
