Like every year, the month of November sees the arrival of the most prestigious literary prizes. for 2024, Goncourt crowned Kamel Daoud for HourisRenaudot, Gael Faye with Jacarandaand the French Academy, Miguel Bonnefoy for The Jaguar's Dream. What did our editors think of all these books?
Goncourt Prize:
Houris – Kamel Daoud (Gallimard)
With HourisKamel Daoud immerses us in the dark decade that hit his native country, Algeria, through the journey of a woman. A novel of absolute evocative power, but in which the weight of the symbol crushes the story.
“Houris”, by Kamel Daoud: Mother and FIS
Renaudot Prize:
Jacaranda – Gael Faye (Grasset)
Eight years later Small country, Gail Faye invites us to follow him for a return to the lands of his childhood, to Rwanda, to remember the massacres which forever changed the history of this small but beautiful country. Gail Faye allows us to understand how the country was rebuilt through pain, how, over the years, the notion of forgiveness and the duty to remember found their place in Rwandan society, so that such a situation never happens again. horror.
“Jacaranda”, by Gaël Faye: a moving return to the “small country”
Grand prize for the novel of the French Academy:
The Jaguar's Dream – Miguel Bonnefoy (Shore)
After Octavio's Journey et Legacy, Miguel Bonnefoy continues his family tree, this time drawing inspiration from the lives of his maternal grandparents. And as before, he approaches this saga with the verve of the born storyteller who easily combines great History (from the discovery of oil in Maracaibo in 1919 to the numerous revolutions which installed dictatorships until the takeover of power of Hugo Chavez in the 1990s) and family legend.
“The Dream of the Jaguar”, by Miguel Bonnefoy: a flamboyant epic!
December Price:
The Bastion of Tears – Abdellah Taïa (Julliard)
Eleventh novel for Abdellah Taïa, which explores even more deeply his relationship to his origins, his family, his homosexuality (recurring themes in his work) through his fictional double, Youssef who returns to his native Morocco which he fled when he was younger. Upsetting.
“The Bastion of Tears”, by Abdellah Taïa: the suffering of young Youssef
Fnac novel prize:
Fierce Souls – Marie Vingtras (The Olivier)
After the noticed BlizzardMarie Vingtras once again confronts her American influences. Even if there remains a little music of déjà vu with figures, motifs and themes already encountered, its Americanness never sounds artificial thanks to a real talent as a storyteller and a perfect use of its casting.
“Les Ames fierces”, by Marie Vingtras: a dark and mastered story (FNAC Novel Prize 2024)
Price of the Inrockuptibles:
Édouard Louis, The Collapse (Threshold)
Landerneau Readers’ Prize:
Kamel Daoud, Houris (Gallimard)
Le Monde Literary Prize:
Maryline Desbiolles, The Staple (ed. Sabine Wespieser)
Price of the Deux Magots:
Jean-Pierre Montal, At North Face (Séguier)
Femina Prize:
It will be awarded November 5, 2024
Medici Prize:
It will be awarded on November 6, 2024
Flora Prize:
It will be awarded on November 7, 2024
Goncourt Prize for high school students:
It will be awarded on November 28, 2024
