“The 2022 Five Continents Prize was awarded to Canadian Monique Proulx for her very singular, poetic and original novel Take away the night “, declared Paula Jacques, president of the jury of the prestigious prize.
Mme Jacques was reunited on Friday with the members of the jury, at the headquarters of the International Organization of La Francophonie (OIF), which oversees the prize, in order to reveal the name of the winner. Monique Proulx will then receive her prize, along with a grant of 15,000 euros (over $20,000), on the sidelines of the International Day of La Francophonie in March.
“I burst out laughing, I was very happy to hear this great news, says the writer. There were ten finalists, so I didn’t think about it at all, even though I really like this book. I believe that the arts can save the world, and while writing it, a power crossed me. I wanted to pass it on as a gift”.
Eighth book (and sixth novel) by the 71-year-old Quebec artist, Take away the night tells the emancipation story of Markus Kohen, a Hasidic Jew who, in his early twenties, leaves his community to strike out on his own in a fictional North American metropolis.
“The words have an unexpected depth, the situations are experienced at the height of a ‘man with nothing'”, noted the jury, by way of a press release. Sorrow, desire, naivety, light and hope: everything is there to sing the novel of an era. »
A “bold” language
Mme Proulx specifies that the prize seems to him “particularly stimulating”, since the jury is made up of nationals from several regions of the world. “My French is quite audacious, even downright delinquent at times, which is all the more a great honor. »
She is also the former editor-in-chief and director of To have toLise Bissonnette, who represented Quebec on the jury this year.
“While writing, I thought a lot about my mentor Réjean Ducharme,” says Ms.me Proulx. Without necessarily claiming a fundamentally Québécois language, he exploited the privilege we have of living in this part of the country where we open the language to a maximum of possibilities, where we can integrate neologisms and calculated imperfections. »
A prize to promote French
Created by the OIF in 2001, the Five Continents Prize “highlights literary talents that reflect the expression of cultural and editorial diversity in the French language on the five continents and promotes them on the international scene”, indicates the organization.
In addition to receiving a scholarship, Mr.me Proulx will be accompanied by the OIF to promote her literary work throughout the year. The Franco-Algerian author Yahia Belaskri also obtained a special mention from the jury, accompanied by a grant of 5,000 euros.
Novelist, short story writer and screenwriter, Monique Proulx has already won the Prix des libraires du Québec and the Prix Québec-Paris for her novel Invisible man at the window (1993), adapted for the cinema in 1993. His novel The Sex of the Stars was also adapted the following year by Paule Baillargeon. The film was nominated for the Oscars and the Golden Globe Awards.