There are five of them, three women and two men. The finalists for the 2025 RTL-Lire Magazine Grand Prix were named this Tuesday, January 14, 2025. In alphabetical order:
– Sophie de Baere, The secret of mothers (JC Lattès): a mother in a coma. A girl in search of truth. Family secrets buried for decades. Sophie de Baere immerses us in a poignant family saga where unsaid things shape destinies.
-Sophie Brocas, The closed bed (Mialet-Barrault): when in November 1924, anger exploded in the port of Douarnenez, Louise, the Republican with a prodigious voice, was one of the leaders who led 3,000 sardine workers into what would remain the most great feminist strike of the 20th century. Among them, Rose, a young Catholic peasant girl. Louise and Rose, drawn into this liberating dizziness, will even dare to love each other…
– Jean Echenoz, Bristol (Midnight): Robert Bristol, nerdy director, didn’t pay attention to this naked body that fell from the 5th floor as he was leaving his building. He was only concerned with the shooting of his next film. Jean Echenoz’s new novel is a monument of virtuosity and irony.
– Camille Laurens, Your promise (Gallimard): what happened with her companion so that the novelist Claire Lancel had to defend herself in court? Throughout the story, she recounts how she gradually allowed herself to be drawn into a story made up of manipulation and lies.
In this gripping novel like a thriller, Camille Laurens questions contemporary narcissism, the absence of empathy, and wonders how to save love from its illusions.
– Mathieu Menegaux, Unforgivable (Grasset): two stories, two voices, two a priori enemies. His name is Paul Dufourcq. One evening, he drives home after drinking, kills a young man on a scooter and ends up in prison. Her name is Anna. She lost her daughter, Lucie, in similar circumstances, but her culprit got away with an electronic bracelet. Justice crushed them both, walling one in anger and the other in guilt. Destiny will make them meet…
100 jurors spread across 20 partner bookstores across France will now read the 5 finalist novels and will choose the winner by vote. A procedure which, in the end, makes the Grand Prix RTL- Lire Magazine an authentic readers’ prize.
Result and announcement on March 24 in the morning of RTL. Last year Claire Deya was rewarded for A world to remake (Éditions de L’Observatoire).
Read more
