The twelfth Literary Prize The World was awarded on Wednesday, September 4, to Maryline Desbiolles for The Staple (ed. Sabine Wespieser). The writer continues a work anchored in the hinterland of Nice, where she lives. It is in its stony landscapes that a young girl, Emma Fulconis, runs with a wild freedom, until the day when a dog bite immobilizes her and pushes her to look into the family past that her uncle, who grew up in a harkis camp, tells her. The way in which the author puts her torrential, dancing language at the service of this story of multiple fractures, is rewarded by our jury. Chaired by Jérôme Fenoglio, director of Mondethis is made up of journalists working at “Le Monde des livres” (Jean Birnbaum, Florent Georgesco, Raphaëlle Leyris and Nicolas Weill) and at the four “corners” of Le Monde: Emmanuel Davidenkoff (editorial development), Zineb Dryef (“M Le magazine du Monde”), Gaëlle Dupont (Planète), Clara Georges (“Intimités”), Raphaëlle Rérolle (Grands Reporters), Solenn de Royer (Politics) and Alain Salles (Debates and Ideas). The Staple succeeds to sad tigerof Snow Synno (POL).
Read the review | Article reserved for our subscribers “L’Agrafe”: Maryline Desbiolles reduces the divide
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Do you have a special relationship with the newspaper “Le Monde”?
I have been a subscriber to it for a very long time, and it is the only newspaper that I receive in paper. I use it a lot when I peel my vegetables, and I love the moment when, in the leaflet, I discover or rediscover articles. And then I have written several columns for you, including one on July 15, 2016, after the attack in Nice. I was there. When The World asked me, I felt so bad that I initially refused. And then I told myself that it was the only thing I could do. I have heard a lot about this text about an attack that many people had the impression had not been treated like the others. Finally, regarding my relationship with Mondeit was after reading an interview with Sabine Wespieser in “Le Monde des livres” that I decided to join this house. She spoke about the independence of her house, which was celebrating its 20th anniversary, and I felt a vibration, the commitment of this wonderful woman. I had virtually left my previous house [Seuil] and, right away, I sent her a message. She answered me immediately, everything happened in an instant.
You received the Prix Femina in 1999 for “Anchise” (Seuil). How do you view prizes and their place in literary life?
Femina was a total surprise. Besides, Seuil didn’t believe it, I wasn’t in Paris, I had to take a plane in an emergency. I remember Pascal Cherki [alors PDG de la maison] shouting at me on the phone: “It’s the triumph of virtue!”
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