THE WINNER
“We will go through storms” by Anne-Laure Bondoux (Gallimard Jeunesse, 495 p., €19.50)
DFrom the dawn of the war from 1914 to today, the Balaguère family never ceases to move us. The characters face the trials of the past century and the scourges of this one with passion. Like the great sagas of Henri Troyat, Anne-Laure Bondoux offers us a masterful fresco where the great story embraces the individual destinies of the characters. This novel is proof, if proof were needed, that children’s literature is doing wonderfully! § Anne Goscinny
THE FINALISTS
“Astréa” by Alexis Brocas (Sarbacane, 448 p., €18.50)
How lucky to have an Alexis Brocas in our solar system! We loved it Shame of the galaxy (Sarbacane, 2021). In the same vein, that of a space opera masterfully written and constructed, it weaves the story of a dreamy heroine, isolated on a “trash planet”, whose talents interest the highest echelons of the Empire. And this is the beginning of a breathtaking and poetic space adventure, which galvanizes us § Élise Lépine
“Ilos” by Marion Brunet (PKJ, 240 p., €16.90)
2052. Marseille, half-submerged, is traversed by currents, sharks and deadly jellyfish. Nolane and Gal, free divers, survive by recovering precious objects from submerged buildings. One day, Gal doesn’t go back up… A coming-of-age novel in a postapocalyptic world, where the aquatic mixes with the political and the […] Read more
