Meeting this Tuesday, December 3, the jury of the prestigious literary prize decided to suspend the award of its international “Goncourt Choice” due to the banning of Kamel Daoud's novel in Algeria.
For years, the Goncourt Academy has created what it calls international “Goncourt Choices”, so much so that the prestigious literary prize is awarded throughout the world in 40 countries, from Poland to Armenia via Cameroon, China, Vietnam, and even a Goncourt of the Orient which brings together several countries around Lebanon. Other countries will follow. The principle is simple, it is modeled on that of the Goncourt for high school students: generally under the aegis of French institutes or alliances françaises, the first Goncourt selection is judged by students from the country's main cities.
For seven years, Algeria has been part of the “Goncourt Choices”. Created on the initiative of the French Institute of Algeria, again with the Académie Goncourt, it brings together around a hundred young Algerian readers, most of them students or high school students. The number of cities participating in the event has continued to grow with ten cities represented this year (Annaba, Algiers, Batna, Béjaïa, Constantine, Oran, Tiaret, Mascara, Saïda and Tlemcen) for a prize which attracts a lot of attention. interest within the Algerian literary and academic landscape. The vote is carried out in coordination with the media libraries of the five branches of the French Institute of Algeria.
Last year, Jean-Baptiste Andrea was crowned, succeeding David Diop (2018), Natacha Appanah (2019), Djaïli Amadou Amal (2020), Clara Dupont-Monod (2021), Nathan Devers (2022) .
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For the record, Neige Sinno won 22 “Goncourt Choices” with her story sad tiger (POL), also Goncourt des lycéens and Prix Femina.
The winner of the Goncourt Algeria 2025 Choice should have been designated in July 2025, but following the ban on Houristhe novel by Kamel Daoud, in Algeria, the Goncourt Academy meeting this Tuesday, December 3, decided to suspend this 7th edition of Choix Goncourt Algeria. Furthermore, the jury wanted to reaffirm its conviction of any attack on freedom of expression at the time when Boualem Sansal, the author of 2084 The end of the world, is arbitrarily incarcerated for his writings.
There has already been a precedent, in 2021. The Tunisian Ministry of National Education wanted to remove Christine Angot's novel from the selection, The Journey to the East (Flammarion). The prestigious literary jury decided otherwise and canceled the 5th edition of the “Choix Goncourt” of Tunisia.
