(Paris) Dominique Barbéris won the Grand Prix du roman of the French Academy on Thursday with A way of lovingfiction which tells a love story during the colonial era.
This author was chosen in the first round by gathering 14 votes, against 6 for Antoine Sénanque and 4 for Sarah Chiche.
“I am both very moved and infinitely honored to receive this prize,” declared the laureate during the proclamation in the salons of the French Academy.
Dominique Barbéris, 65, is an academic who taught literature for 40 years at the Sorbonne University in Paris.
It tells the story of an adulterous love in Douala shortly before the independence of Cameroon.
This novel “is dedicated to the memory of my father who left for Africa in 1950. I know that my mother reads it and rereads it saying: I am going back to Douala,” declared the winner after the prize was announced.
“It won’t remove doubt about the quality of what I write. But I have 30 years of writing behind me, and God knows it’s a wonderful recognition,” she added.
This is the third year in a row that a novel published by Editions Gallimard has been crowned with this prize, after those of François-Henri Désérable in 2021 and Giuliano Da Empoli in 2022.
The author wins 10,000 euros ($14,500).
The season of major fall literary prizes continues until November, with the most prestigious of them, the Goncourt, awarded on the 7th.