The jurors will have to decide between Giuliano da Empoli, Brigitte Giraud, Cloé Korman and Makenzy Orcel on Thursday.
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 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 Goncourt Academy 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 Mage of the Kremlin (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 battle, on a Napoleonic battle. And that’s all, because these two Academies, which do not like each other, hold to the singularity of their choice.
If we give two prices to a single book, it only makes one book in the window
Didier Decoin
In addition, a “Decoin case law”, named after the president of the Goncourt academy Didier Decoin, wants the same book not to obtain two different autumn prizes. Just before handing over the Goncourt 2021, Didier Decoin explained to AFP: “We must not forget our friends and allies who are the booksellers. If we give two prices to a single book, it 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.
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.
Testimony or investigation
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 autumn prizes with other novels, didn’t expect this particular book to go this 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 in charge of speeches was chosen in the first selection“.
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 a few weeks before the Christmas holidays, it assures its winner of very comfortable sales, in the hundreds of thousands of copies, a far cry from the print run of these four books today. The reward comes with a check for ten euros, which the beneficiaries 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. It has six finalists for the novel: Sandrine Collette, Nathan Devers, Sibylle Grimbert, Claudie Hunzinger, Simon Liberati and Christophe Ono-dit-Biot.