Olivier Norek receives the Jean Giono prize for his novel “Winter Warriors”

The author is a former police officer from Seine-Saint-Denis who converted to writing detective novels.

The writer Olivier Norek was crowned, Thursday November 7, 2024, with the Jean Giono prize for his novel The Winter Warriors, in which he recounts the war between Finland and the Soviet Union in 1939-1940. Former policeman in Seine-Saint-Denis, Olivier Norek first became known for his realistic detective novels, with which he sought to deconstruct clichés about the suburbs “difficult”. With this new book, published in August by Michel Lafon, he turns to the historical novel.

Winter Warriors traces Finland’s heroic resistance to the Soviet invasion, focusing on the legendary figure of Simo Häyhä, a peasant turned sniper, who, through his exceptional skills, became a national hero and symbol of “the winter war”. Olivier Norek’s choice to participate in the fall literary prizes paid off, since he was selected among the first 16 novels for the Goncourt prize and is one of the five finalists for the Renaudot prize.

Created in 1990, the Jean Giono Prize, chaired by Paule Constant, member of the Académie Goncourt, is endowed with 10,000 euros and supported by the Jan Michalski Foundation for Writing and Literature. Sylvie Giono, the writer’s daughter, is part of his jury.

“Winter Warriors” by Olivier Norek (Michel Lafon, 448 pages, 21.95 euros).