Msame selection process. Same list of works. Same tight schedule to read them all. Same heated debates between jurors. Same day of announcement of the winner. Except for one letter, the Boncourt – with a B like Biarritz – and the Prix Goncourt are not that different. The winner of the latter was revealed on Monday, November 4, 2024 around 11:45 a.m., in Paris, upstairs at the Drouant restaurant. Less than half an hour after that of Boncourt, in Biarritz, on the floor of the Miremont tea room. And, as is often the case, the tastes of the jury of the most prestigious French literary prize and those of Biarritz readers align.
“Houris”, by Kamel Daoud, a book on the dark decade of Islamism in Algeria, prevails everywhere. A novel, “very strong”, “difficult, but necessary”, underlines Cécile Pougnand, the director of the Biarritz media library, surrounded by the house jury.
The media library orchestrated the meeting and launched calls for applications among the regular members of its reading club, to form the Boncourt jury. This is the 19th time this year that it has met at the same pace as that of Goncourt.
The list of 16 titles in the running appears at the beginning of September. The 10 jurors must then read everything in one month before the first skimming. There are then 8 left. We do not necessarily eliminate the same ones in the Basque Country and the capital, but each time the Boncourt jurors start again on the list of those selected by their “colleagues” from Goncourt up to the four finalists.
Special exercise
The exercise is special for reading enthusiasts. It requires an investment that gentlemen, under-represented on the jury, are less inclined to make. It has been several years since the jury was exclusively female. “They do not necessarily read less, but often more documentaries or essays than novels,” supposes Cécile Pougnand.
“There is a collective intelligence that emerges”
This is not the case for Jean-François Vaillant who, on the contrary, says he is hungry for “stories”, “strong themes”, “characters” to feed his “need to escape”. He is one of the two representatives of the male gender, for this vintage, in a group composed largely of regulars.
“I am an avid reader, but it remains an atypical constraint to have to read so much in such a short time,” says the newcomer. I read books that I wouldn't have turned to spontaneously, like “Madelaine Before Dawn” by Sandrine Colette, which is our jury's second favorite. I had read another novel by her without being hooked. There, I really liked it. Like what… “
Same story with Michel Recart. Of the 16 works read, “6 or 7” were great discoveries for him. The retiree took his role very seriously and particularly appreciated the quality of the exchanges with the other members of the jury. “It was very enriching to put oneself in this openness of mind and to find oneself with people who read so much, who have a lot of references. The debates were fascinating. There is a collective intelligence that emerges. »
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