KIRAN RIDLEY / AFP
“The Dream of the Jaguar” by Miguel Bonnefoy received the Femina Prize in November 2024.
LITERATURE – And two. The Femina novel prize was awarded this Tuesday, November 5, to the Franco-Venezuelan writer Miguel Bonnefoy for his book The Jaguar's Dreamalready crowned with the Grand Prix du roman of the French Academy last October.
“It’s an award I’ve been waiting for for ten years. So you can imagine how honored I am, I am happy”declared the winner, at the Carnavalet-Histoire museum in Paris. Before adding: “I am also touched because my mother tongue is Spanish, and therefore to distinguish a book which is in French, that is to say which is not written in my mother tongue, I find that it speaks a lot, that speaks very well about France. »
The Jaguar's Dreampublished by Rivages, is in line with the family sagas between South America and France by this 37-year-old author, with the starting point being the story of a newborn abandoned in the street who will become one of the most illustrious surgeons of his country. This Tuesday, Miguel Bonnefoy won in the second round thanks to five votes, against four for Emma Becker with Pretty Evil (Albin Michel editions).
Alia Trabucco Zeran awarded
Another South American was rewarded, with the Femina prize for foreign novel, the Chilean of Palestinian origin Alia Trabucco Zeran, for Own (Robert Laffont editions). “It is an honor that Own the first Latin American novel to win the Foreign Femina Prize”she said.
“Today, as a descendant of Palestinians (…) I cannot remain silent. Day after day, before our eyes, the horror in Palestine continues. Horror always spreads in silence. Let’s continue to raise our voices, thank you”she added.
The Femina essay prize was awarded to Paul Audi for Stand your ground (Stock), an essay on anti-Semitism in France whose writing has been disrupted by events in the Middle East since October 7, 2023. “I feel in some way inclined to defend the fight against anti-Semitism from a point of view which is not, precisely, that of a Jew, because I am not one”declared this Franco-Lebanese philosopher.
What two doctors?
A special prize was also awarded to the Irishman Colm Toibin, for his entire body of work, including his latest novel Long Island (Grasset). At the award ceremony, he thanked the translator of his 15 books, Anna Gibson. “I know that my character, in Long Island et Brooklyn, is fictional. But I wanted to assure you how she would vote today. In the novel there is a short sentence, which only says: she became an American when she began to hate Nixon.he explained.
After the Goncourt prize to Kamel Daoud and the Renaudot prize to Gaël Faye this Monday, the season of major autumn literary prizes continues this Wednesday with the presentation of the Médicis prize. Miguel Bonnefoy and his Dream of the Jaguar are again among the last finalists.
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