The 2024 Cagnotte prize was awarded this Friday, December 13 to the writer Karim Kattan pour Eden at dawnpublished by Elyzad editions.
In his second novel, the Palestinian author depicts the moving meeting of Isaac, a receptionist in a hotel in Jerusalem, and Gabriel. Fascinated by the latter's beauty, Isaac arouses his interest by telling him stories of jinns, hyenas and knights. The crazy plan to go on vacation to the house of the sun is born, despite the checkpoints and humiliations. The art of storytelling protects the love between the two Palestinian men, the ultimate resistance in the face of the violence of reality.
“Singular, the language of Karim Kattan lodges somewhere between the lyrical and the everyday, to create new images and transform crude sentences into wonderful little poems”explained the jury.
Born in Jerusalem in 1989, Karim Kattan grew up in Bethlehem. Anglophone and French-speaking, he has a doctorate in comparative literature. His collection of short stories, Preliminaries for a future orchard (Elyzad, 2017), was a finalist for the Boccaccio Prize, and his first novel, In 2021, The Palace of the Two Hills (Elyzad pocket, 2024) received the 2021 Prix des Cinq continents de la francophonie. Eden at dawn was also awarded the 2024 Rotary – PEN Club Prose International Prize.
Karim Kattan succeeds Lena Ghar2023 laureate for Tumor or tutupublished by Verticales.
