The Goncourt high school students 2022 was awarded Thursday to Franco-Lebanese Sabyl Ghoussoub for his novel Beirut-sur-Seine (Stock), announced the jury of this literary prize, made up of high school students from all over France.
“The bad high school student that I was should thank the wonderful high school students that you are. This prize is a huge honour”, reacted by videoconference Sabyl Ghoussoub shortly after the announcement of the prize.
“This book is a tribute to my parents, to the exiles of the war, I think a lot of the living. It’s a beautiful personal story that goes far beyond the story of my parents and I can’t thank you enough for this choice,” he added.
In his second novel, the 34-year-old journalist offers a reflection on the family and immigration, by questioning his parents who came to settle in 1975 in Paris when the war was going to ravage their country.
After two rounds of voting, the prestigious prize was crowned by 7 votes Sabyl Ghoussoub, against 5 for the philosopher Nathan Devers and his book The artificial links (ed. Albin Michel).
After more than two months of diligent reading of the 15 works in the selection of the prestigious Goncourt Prize, the jury of the 35e edition of Goncourt high school students decided Thursday during final deliberations the four finalist novels.
Goncourt’s little brother
Among the last four nominees was Pascale Robert-Diard, legal columnist at the newspaper The world and author of The little liar (L’Iconoclaste) whose novel had been selected for the Grand Prix du roman de l’Académie française.
Her book tells the story of a middle school student who faces the legal consequences of her accusations of rape and sexual assault.
And the Swiss journalist Sarah Jollien-Fardel for His favorite (Sabine Wespieser) who is interested in attachment to land, intra-family violence and the difficulty of exile.
Goncourt’s little brother, the Goncourt des lycéens takes place every year from September to November and allows some 2,000 students from general, technological, professional and agricultural high schools, from the second to the BTS, to discover contemporary literature and arouse a taste for reading.
Brigitte Giraud’s novel live fast (Flammarion), crowned by the Goncourt 2022, had not been selected.
The selection of Goncourt high school students, created in Rennes in 1988 and organized by the Fnac chain of stores and the Ministry of National Education, was announced Monday after deliberations in the region.
These took place in six cities: Lyon, Metz, Nantes, Nîmes, Paris and Rennes.
This year, the prize mobilized 55 high schools in the region and abroad (United States, Canada, Lebanon).
Seven meetings between students and authors have been held in recent weeks in the regions.
Very prescriptive in terms of sales, the jury’s choice is an opportunity for high school students to offer their view of the novels of the new school year.
Last year, the Goncourt des lycéens was awarded to Clara Dupont-Monod for Adapt (Stock), a novel about disability, also winner of the Prix Femina 2021.