Moktar Amoudi is winner of the 2023 Goncourt prize for prisoners; Guy Bolet of the Deux Magots 2023 prize; Amina Damerdji from the Transfuge prize – best French novel 2024; Charlie Roquin of the Pelléas-Radio Classical Prize. These authors and this author are present at Lire à Limoges to follow on Saturday June 22 and Sunday June 23.
Ideal Conditions by Moktar Amoudi: a strong and enlightening novel
Moktar Amoudi is the second winner of the Goncourt des inmates, a prize created in 2022.
In various remand centers in France, prisoners are called upon, on a voluntary basis, to select the work of their hearts from the initial Goncourt list.
Inmates from the Limoges Remand Prison also took part in the first two editions.
Simple, direct, impactful
By choosingt Ideal Conditions by Moktar Amoudi, the detainees have once again shown a most discerning and reliable literary taste. This novel has a strong subject. Approached in a simple and direct style, it is impactful.
Considering the history, we understand that the prisoners could have felt concerned. Prison is one of the book’s many themes. We learn, for example, how for certain young people from the suburbs, it is considered a path to emancipation from parents, an initiation rite not to be missed, the place to create a “network” suitable for “doing business”.
Youth aspirations
All this is more than problematic, of course. But aren’t emancipation, rites and networks common aspirations for all young people, with just a little ambition… It would perhaps be enough to be born in “ideal conditions” for these aspirations to be put into practice. service of a favorable integration in the world.
However, the young hero of the book, Skander, was not born in “ideal conditions” at all. Of Algerian origin through both his parents, he was placed in Child Welfare by his mother. He grew up in what we call a tough suburb.
The strength of the book comes from the fact that the author brings us into this world without being fanciful. If some can recognize themselves, it gives others keys to enlightening understanding of what is happening there. It presents the living conditions. It describes acculturation, beliefs, the process of drifting towards delinquency.
Experience, a world observed from the inside
In this context, the young hero has an unexpected taste for culture. It will be his true path to emancipation. All this smells of experience and knowledge of this world from the inside.
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In his interviews, Moktar Amoudi does not hide it. He knows Children’s Aid well. He also says he made some “mistakes” in his youth. This contributes to the strength of this story which took him five years to write. This also explains the veracity of the characters he depicts in their complexity, without angelism or judgment.
To Read The Ideal Conditions of Moktar Amoudi (Gallimard)
The 3 other winners
Guy Boley prize of the two Magots 2023 for his novel To my Sister and Only (Grasset).
Elisabeth Förster was the younger sister of Friedrich Nietzsche, writer, philologist, philosopher, perpetually suffering being, living in total solitude. She was his first reader, companion, admirer. Early on, she promises herself to do everything to ensure that her brother’s work, about which she understands nothing, shines. Indeed, she will do everything. Will care for him, assist him, carry him. And he went so far as to sell his writings to Adolf Hitler, a man whom Friedrich would have hated if he had known him. In this novel written in one breath, Guy Boley retraces each episode of their lives.
Amina Damerdji, Transfuge prize, best French novel 2024 for Soon the Living (Gallimard).
This is the story of Selma in Algeria during the Black Decade. From 1988, the Islamist movement showed its growing power. Young Selma lives in the near suburbs of Algiers. She has only one passion, horse riding. But soon the heartbreaks of history cross his family and his entire society.
Charlie Roquin Pelléas-Radio Classical Prize 2024 for The Masters of Bayreuth (Look for noon).
The author invites you to take a romantic dive into Wagner’s work. A famous Wagnerian critic goes to the Bayreuth festival. He is holding a platform when the unthinkable happens: a young stranger publicly contradicts him with incredible insolence. Jubilant verbal jousts and mystery about the reasons for the young man’s presence in Bayreuth are the spice of this novel.
Presentation Reading in Limoge:
Muriel Mingau
