(Paris) Jean-Baptiste Andrea won the Goncourt on Tuesday for Watch over hera fresco of more than 500 pages which combines the history of Italy in the 20the century, a thwarted love and passion for art, published by a small publishing house, L’iconoclaste.
The 52-year-old novelist was elected to the 14the round, proof of the dissensions within the jury chaired by Didier Decoin, whose vote counts double at the end.
For the most prestigious French-speaking literary prize, he faced Eric Reinhardt, long considered a favorite, Gaspard Kœnig and Neige Sinno, awarded the Femina prize on Monday.
“It’s an extraordinary moment and I didn’t think I’d experience that once in my life,” exclaimed Jean-Baptiste Andrea, near Drouant, the restaurant where the Goncourt has traditionally been awarded since 1914, at lunch.
“I think of all the kids who dream of it, and who say to themselves: I won’t make it. I want to tell them: be unreasonable.” “Art is freedom. I have always believed in romance, romance has never died,” he added, before paying tribute to his editor Sophie de Sivry, who died in May.
Watch over her is the fourth novel by Jean-Baptiste Andrea, who took his first steps in cinema before devoting himself late to literature, six years ago. This fresco, on sculpture and Italy, had already received the Fnac prize at the end of August.
Mimo, born poor and apprenticed to a mediocre sculptor, recounts his journey and his love story with Viola Orsini, ambitious heiress to a prestigious family, in the midst of Italy’s fall into fascism.
The Goncourt prize is the assurance of considerable sales during the last two months of the year, the most important for booksellers. They reach on average some 400,000 copies. Jean-Baptiste Andrea has already reached more than 50,000, a good start.
Le Goncourt 2022, Live fast by Brigitte Giraud, had disappointed from this point of view, remaining below 300,000 copies.
Last round
She had only been nominated in the very last round, too. And the most influential publisher of French letters, Gallimard, had already been beaten at the last minute.
Immediately after the Goncourt, and also at the Drouant restaurant, the Renaudot jury proclaimed its 2023 prize, awarded to Ann Scott, 58, for The insolent (Calmann-Lévy editions).
The novel tells of the arrival “in the middle of nowhere” of Alex, a film music composer who decides to leave the capital to reinvent herself, wishing to live “elsewhere and alone”. The character is a fictional double of the author, a former queen of Parisian nights based in Brittany.
Born to a Russian photographer mother and a French art collector father, Ann Scott grew up in Paris before moving to London at 17. She was a model and a drummer in a punk band.
The author ofAsphyxia And Super star, who started writing at the age of 29, paid tribute to the memory of her father. “That’s what he hoped for me. Now he’s up there. And maybe he wanted it,” she told AFP.
President Macron greeted the two winners; Jean-Baptiste Andrea tells the story of two completely opposed worlds, brought together by love. Ann Scott takes us into a deep reflection on loneliness. Goncourt and Renaudot crown two prodigies of the pen. Congratulations to them! “, he wrote on X.
The Renaudot prize for the essay was awarded to Jean-Luc Barré for the first volume, in more than 900 pages, of an immense biography: De Gaulle, a life: nobody’s man (1890-1944)published by Grasset.
The Renaudot pocket book prize went to Manuel Carcassonne for The reversal.