The Goncourt jury, the most prestigious of French literary prizes, selected four novels as finalists for its 2022 edition, Tuesday in Beirut, where it avoided any allusion to the controversy that deterred jurors from coming to Lebanon.
The prize is to be presented, as tradition dictates, at the Drouant restaurant in Paris on November 3.
The Italian-Swiss Giuliano da Empoli, with The Mage of the Kremlin (Gallimard), a novel released in April, recounts the itinerary of a fictional adviser to President Vladimir Putin, an opportunity to look back on the history of Russia since the break-up of the Soviet Union.
In live fast (Flammarion), the French Brigitte Giraud evokes the last days of her husband, killed in a motorcycle accident in 1999, and the consequences of this tragedy.
Cloe Korman, with Almost sisters (Seuil), signs an investigation into child victims of the Shoah, cousins of his father. In September, the French Minister of National Education Pap Ndiaye was delighted that his “adviser in charge of speeches had been chosen in the first selection”.
The Haitian Makenzy Orcel, in A human sum (Rivages), speaks from beyond the grave, on 600 pages in an abundant and uninterrupted language, a woman inhabited by poetry and violence.
Already in 2021, a Haitian, Louis-Philippe Dalembert, had been a finalist with Milwaukee Blues. But it was the Senegalese Mohamed Mbougar Sarr who won, with The most secret memory of men.
” We are good here “
The jury eliminated two titles which seemed favorites at the time of the literary season, The Clandestine Life by Monica Sabolo and The heart does not give in by Gregoire Bouillier.
The Académie Goncourt traveled to Beirut as part of the first edition of a literary festival organized by the Institut français in this large French-speaking city.
The announcement was made from the residence of the French ambassador, Anne Grillo, by the president of the Goncourt Academy, Didier Decoin, in front of handpicked guests.
Mr. Decoin slipped “a very sincere word of thanks” for his host. “We are good here,” he said.
This was not the opinion of other jurors of the prize, who chose to remain in Paris.
The programming of the Beirut Books festival has indeed displeased the Lebanese Minister of Culture Mohammad Mourtada, close to the Shiite movement Amal, an ally of the powerful pro-Iranian group Hezbollah. He had announced on October 8, in a press release which has since been withdrawn, that he “will not allow [t] Zionists not to come among us and spread the venom of Zionism in Lebanon”.
“If everyone falls back”
In response, the French Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt, Pascal Bruckner and Pierre Assouline, and the Franco-Moroccan Tahar Ben Jelloun gave up the trip.
“I would not feel safe in this country where murder is quite easy,” declared Mr. Ben Jelloun on France Inter radio on Monday.
The latter is one of the many targets of Israel’s enemies because of his positions for a better understanding between Arabs and Jews, and his criticism of the systematic boycott of Israel.
Françoise Chandernagor and Patrick Rambaud having also declined the invitation, four members of the Academy were on hand: in addition to Mr. Decoin, the secretary Philippe Claudel, and two jurors, Camille Laurens and Paule Constant.
A French writer of Lebanese origin, Sélim Nassib, had also renounced Beirut Books, saying in a press release “deeply disgusted” by the minister’s remarks.
Like the author, the hero of his novel published in August, The tumultcomes from a Jewish family, and thinks that “if everyone withdraws into their own community, the country will explode”, he explained.