Abigail Assor, winner of the Alain Spiess Prize for the second novel 2024

The Alain Spiess Prize for the second novel 2024 was awarded to David’s night by Abigail Assor published by Gallimard. The jury praised a book which, in restrained language, speaks with emotion of fraternal bonds and poetically shows how an unloved child, because he is a little different, is led to plunge into madness.

The jurors were also particularly sensitive to the strength of the writing of another novel to which they chose to award the special mention of the Alain Spiess prize: This old song that burns d’Alexandre Lénot published by Denoël, whose heroes are once again twins raised by a silent and brutal father, in a nature that is both wild and threatened.

Perfect parity among the winners

This was the eighth edition of the award. Four women, Anne Godard, Lola Gruber, Toufhat Mouhtare, Abigail Assor, and four men, Nicolas Mathieu, Guillaume Poix, Marin Fouqué, Damien Ribeiro, have been rewarded since 2017.

The jury is composed ofAlbert Dichy, Marin Fouque, Lola Gruber, Christine Guinard, Véronique Jacob, Emmanuelle Lambert, Michel Lederer, Touhfat Mouhtare, Françoise Spies, Jean-Luc Vincent et Anita Weber.