This is the most anticipated literary prize of the season. The Goncourt 2022 prize was awarded to Brigitte Giraud for her book live fast. The selection was narrowed down to four authors.
The Goncourt 2022 prize was awarded to Brigitte Giraud for her book live fast. This book, published by Flammarion, is a look back at the improbable events that led to the death of her husband. The author is inspired by the drama of her life, on June 22, 1999 in Lyon, when her husband Claude starts too quickly at a traffic light, with an overly powerful motorcycle which is not his, and falls. He won’t recover. She is the first author to receive this award since Soft song by Leïla Slimani in 2016, and the thirteenth woman to be awarded since the creation of Le Goncourt 120 years ago.
Fourteenth round
The ritual has been the same for more than a century: a lunch at the Drouant restaurant in Paris, to decide who has written the best French novel of the year. The ten jurors of the most prestigious of French literary prizes, seven men and three women, have delivered their verdict.
In 2022, Brigitte Giraud won in the fourteenth round of a very tight ballot against Giuliano da Empoli, thanks to the voice of the president of the Goncourt academy, Didier Decoin, who counted double. She succeeds the Senegalese Mohamed Mbougar Sarr. The Goncourt Academy has chosen an author little known to the general public and not used to big sales figures, thus pursuing a certain revival. Native of Algeria, Brigitte Giraud, who lives in Lyon (central-eastern France), has written about ten books, novels, essays or short stories.
Four finalists
The selection was narrowed down to four finalists: two French authors, Brigitte Giraud and Cloé Korman, an Italian-Swiss, Giuliano da Empoli, and a Haitian, Makenzy Orcel.
(with AFP. More information to come)