This Monday, November 4, 2024, the Goncourt Prize will be awarded. What is the favorite novel of the booksellers of Cherbourg-en-Cotentin? They give us their favorites.
Read also: Prix Goncourt 2024: Kamel Daoud, Gaël Faye, Hélène Gaudy and Sandrine Collette finalists
Anne-Laure Vérien, Blue Schistes Bookstore
“My choice is Sandrine Colette. She writes really well. We're in right away. We are transported by the atmosphere. She's a real novelist. She comes from the thriller and is heading towards the novel. Still a little dark though. She is talented. She already has her readers, but many don't know her. »
Olivier Pique, books and literature manager at Librairie Ryst
“My preference goes to Sandrine Collette. It's a book that I really liked. It is extremely well written and mainstream. There is a real story that grips the guts and you are drawn into the book from start to finish. He is someone who has been building a body of work for several years, first in crime fiction, then in white literature. She knows how to construct a plot that hooks the reader beautifully. From the point of view of form, literature and style, it is really very beautiful. This brings together all audiences. Anyone looking for something literary, and a strong, moving story. The books of the four finalists are all very beautiful. Kamel Daoud is very well written, perhaps too demanding on a literary level. Gaël Faye has a very strong story, perhaps not at the level of Goncourt. »
Céline Robert, from the Leclerc Cultural Space in Tourlaville
« Madelaine before dawn by Sandrine Collette is a fierce and astonishing novel. She uses accessible, sober and fair writing. Its sobriety is luminous. It evokes the instinct that lies within every human being. That of rebellion. It immerses the reader in a wild world of great poverty. A noxious atmosphere. Rough personalities. A steep landscape. A world that moves, shakes up. A writing that is dazzling in its harshness. Sparkling in its accuracy, its minimalism. This masterpiece is my favorite. »
Catherine Gentile, mayor of Cherbourg deputy for culture
“My choice for Goncourt is Gaël Faye. I really liked his first book which made him known. Jacaranda is a novel where he writes how he builds himself between France and Rwanda. How he grew up while trying to understand his roots and what happened during the massacres in 1994. I also like Sandrine Collette, whom I have been following for a long time. His very particular way of constructing detective novels almost without anyone knowing it really appeals to me. »
France
