An author from the noir novel, a novelist with controversial sex scenes, the latest winner of the Interallié prize, a gay Moroccan writer calling for love and revolt or a police officer converted into a successful writer? The Goncourt prize for high school students will be awarded at midday on Thursday.
Five finalists remain in the running for this prize, which is very influential in terms of sales, which is traditionally announced in Rennes where this little brother of Goncourt was created in 1988.
The jury, representing around fifty high schools, must this year choose between Sandrine Collette (“Madelaine avant l’Aube”, JC Lattès), Rebecca Lighieri (“The Club of Lost Children”, POL), Thibault de Montaigu (“Heart” , Albin Michel), Abdellah Taïa (“The bastion of tears”, Julliard) and Olivier Norek, who abandoned his usual genre, for “Winter Warriors” (ed. Michel Lafon).
French writer Sandrine Collette poses in Paris, June 29, 2022 / THOMAS COEX / AFP
The latest novel by Sandrine Collette, who entered literature through the thriller, has the appearance of a dark peasant chronicle, until the irruption of Madelaine, a hungry and wild little girl from the forests who comes to question the order of things.
For her part, Rebecca Lighieri, alias of the writer Emmanuelle Bayamack-Tam, created shock and controversy with the sometimes very crude sex scenes in “The Lost Children’s Club”a powerful and poignant story for some but “explicitly pornographic novel” and inappropriate for young people according to others.
Just awarded the Interallié prize, ” Heart “ seems almost too wise for teenagers. In this autobiographical novel, Thibault de Montaigu evokes his ancestry, his cardiac father but also an ancestor with a strong heart who distinguished himself in a cavalry charge in 1914.
Big sales in perspective
The Goncourt jury of high school students will have regained a dose of madness and rebellion after reading Abdellah Taïa’s book, “The Bastion of Tears”critical success of the French literary season crowned by the December Prize.
The Moroccan writer, Muslim and self-proclaimed gay, evokes violence against children and discrimination against homosexuals in his native country, also praising the spirit of revolt and freedom through female characters inspired by his eight older sisters.
French writer and screenwriter Olivier Norek poses during a photo shoot in Paris, July 12, 2024 / JOEL SAGET / AFP/Archives
Last candidate, the successful writer Olivier Norek, former police officer in Seine-Saint-Denis who with “Winter Warriors” abandoned realistic thrillers for a historical novel about the war between Finland and the Soviet Union in 1939-1940, around a peasant sniper character, Simo the “White Death”. His book received the Jean Giono Prize.
The Goncourt des lycéens, which designates its winner from the same selection as that of the Académie Goncourt, can represent in certain years several hundred thousand copies sold. According to the organizers, it is the second best-selling literary prize in France.
Created at the initiative of Fnac and the Ministry of National Education, the Goncourt for high school students takes place every year from September to November. It allows some 2,000 students from second to BTS to discover contemporary literature and to promote a taste for reading in their establishments.
In 2023, the Goncourt Prize for high school students was awarded to Neige Sinno for her book «Sad tiger»(POL), a story about incest also awarded the Femina Prize.
