Very open race for Goncourt 2022

(Paris) An author slightly on the sidelines, an essayist author of a first novel, and two in their thirties: the race for the Goncourt prize, awarded on Thursday, seems very open this year between the four finalists who were not starting favorites.

It is at the Drouant restaurant in Paris, at lunchtime, that the Académie Goncourt will announce its choice between Brigitte Giraud, Giuliano da Empoli, Cloé Korman and Makenzy Orcel.

Italian-Swiss Giuliano da Empoli was seen as a favorite with The Kremlin Mage (Gallimard)… until he won the Grand Prix du roman from the French Academy on Thursday.

Can he do the double? Another foreign author, the American Jonathan Littell (later naturalized French), succeeded in doing so in 2006 with his fresco on an SS officer, The benevolent. Also Patrick Rambaud, in 1997 with The battleon a Napoleonic battle.

And that’s all, because these two Academies, which do not like each other, hold to the singularity of their choice.

In addition, a “Decoin case law”, named after the president of the Académie Goncourt Didier Decoin, wants the same book not to obtain two different autumn prizes.

Just before handing over the Goncourt 2021, Mr. Decoin explained to AFP: “We must not forget our friends and allies who are the booksellers. If we give two prizes to a single book, that only makes one book in the window”.

Christine Angot, finalist with The Journey to the Easthad been content with the Prix Médicis obtained eight days earlier.

Uncertainty

Giuliano da Empoli did not bother with this question when receiving his prize under the Dome of the French Academy. Published in April, and not at the beginning of August, he had no idea of ​​claiming any prize with his first novel.

Between his three rivals, there is uncertainty.

We know that Brigitte Giraud has touched some jurors a lot with live fast (Flammarion), returning to the spiral of improbable events that led to the death of her husband in a motorcycle accident in 1999.

This Lyonnaise sometimes included in the selections for the fall prizes with other novels did not expect this particular book to go so far.

We also know that Cloé Korman convinced other friends of Drouant with her investigation of child victims of the Shoah, Almost sisters (Threshold).

This 39-year-old Normalienne has done little promotion, busy with her work with the Minister of National Education Pap Ndiaye. In September, he was delighted that his “advisor responsible for speeches had been chosen in the first selection”.

Check to be framed

Finally, the surprise could come from Makenzy Orcel, a Haitian who is the same age, not really a headliner of the literary season.

Monologue from beyond the grave of 600 pages, A human sum would be the first Goncourt from its publisher, Rivages (a subsidiary of Actes Sud). And a huge honor for this French-speaking Caribbean country with a rich literary tradition.

The Goncourt, whose jury includes seven men and three women, is the most prestigious of French literary prizes. Delivered just before the Christmas period, it assures its winner of very comfortable sales, in the hundreds of thousands of copies, a far cry from the circulation of these four books today.

The reward comes with a check for 10 euros ($13.50), which recipients prefer to frame rather than deposit in the bank.

As tradition dictates, the Renaudot prize is awarded just after the Goncourt on Thursday, in the same restaurant in the Opéra district in Paris.

There are six finalists for the novel: Sandrine Collette, Nathan Devers, Sibylle Grimbert, Claudie Hunzinger, Simon Liberati and Christophe Ono-dit-Biot.