The writer Abdellah Taïa wins the December prize for his new novel, “The Bastion of Tears”

Although he was not selected in the final selection for the Goncourt Prize, Abdellah Taïa nevertheless has a string of successes. The Moroccan writer won the French language prize at the Brive fair in November for all of his work and has just won the prestigious December prize.

This prize, which positions itself as an anti-Goncourt, rewards each year since its creation in 1989, a novel forgotten by the other major autumn literary prizes. Supported by the Pierre Bergé-Yves-Saint-Laurent Foundation, it rewards the winners with an endowment of 15,000 euros.

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Published by Julliard Editions, the novel by Abdellah Taïa, which was in competition with Ann from England, by Julia Deck and The last days of the socialist party, by Aurélien Bellanger, evokes the writer’s childhood, the violence he suffered and the discrimination against homosexuals.

The Bastion of Tears is still in the running for the Medici Prize, the list of which will be reduced on November 7, before the final selection which will take place on November 14.