Goncourt, Renaudot, Décembre… expected and deserved literary prizes!
GONCOURT PRIZE: Houris, by Kamel Daoud
The Algerian novelist was a favorite for his powerful novel about a young woman Aube, horribly mutilated by Islamists during the Algerian civil war (see also Le Pèlerin n° 7403 of October 17). Her literary memorial in the name of all women is an excellent Goncourt Prize, very political – her book is banned in Algeria – even if reading it remains a moment of bravery. After a trying first third, where the reader is prisoner of the furious inner voice of this young woman left speechless after an attempt at slitting her throat, the reader will more easily follow her on her journey towards her village. Along the way, she will meet a talkative driver-bookseller, also a victim of the war. Columnist for the weekly Le Point, Kamel Daoud, 54, has already received the Goncourt Prize for first novel in 2015 for Meursault, contre-enquest (Éd. Gallimard). Committed against the Islamists, whom he considers to be a scourge for the entire world, he is convinced that Arab societies will only be able to get rid of barbarism when they admit the rights of women to live free and happy. His sharp pen never hesitates to take the sword against those who, in the name of multiculturalism, show themselves to be too welcoming to the dictates of fundamentalists. Muriel Fauriat
Our opinion: PP
RENAUDOT PRIZE Jacaranda, by Gaël Faye
After the Goncourt des Lycéens for Petit pays in 2016, the 42-year-old Franco-Rwandan novelist, who was also a finalist for the Goncourt this year, won the second most important prize of the literary season, to our immense pleasure (read Le Pèlerin n ° 7399 of September 19). The story of Jacaranda – whose title evokes a magnificent tree with purple flowers from his country – is that of a young Franco-Rwandan, Milan, discovering his mother’s country, his extended family, the street kids of Kigali, friendship and the after-effects of the genocide. Or how the next generation, that of today’s children, who did not experience the genocide, remains marked by the tragedy. Poetry and gentleness surround this magnificent novel for all audiences. MF
Our opinion: PPP
DECEMBER PRIZE The bastion of tears, by Abdellah Taïa
Incandescent, the work of the Moroccan novelist, 51 years old, narrates the return to his childhood town, Salé, of a professor exiled in France, Youssef, following the death of his mother. He finds his six sisters there, exuberant. And the voice of Najib, his childhood lover, came to him in a dream. He tells him about his life as a young homosexual martyr to the men in the neighborhood, who rape him. His rise in the world of traffickers under the wing of a colonel. It is a violent and hypocritical society that the author denounces, who openly declared his homosexuality in 2007. His incantatory, burning style also earned him the 2024 French Language Prize, which will be awarded to him at the Paris Book Fair. Brive on November 8. (For adults only). MF
Our opinion: PP
