Are literary jurors and readers in sync? – L’Express

With the exception of the Académie française (scheduled for September 26), all the first lists of the major fall prizes have been released. This is an opportunity to cross-reference them all with our Top 20 bestsellers to see if literary juries are in tune with readers’ wishes. After a little “learned” calculation, we have identified seven authors selected three times and nine selected twice (1).

Among the “tri-selected”, four have largely received the approval of the general public: Gaël Faye, whose Jacaranda (Grasset) holds firm on the top step of the podium (with some 75,000 copies sold as of September 15 according to Edistat), Olivier Norek, whose The Winter Warriors (Michel Lafon) continue to climb until reaching 2nd place (33,000 copies sold), Kamel Daoud and his Houris victorious (Gallimard, 32,000 copies) and Miguel Bonnefoy, whose The Jaguar’s Dream (Rivages) is hanging on in our list. It should be noted in this regard that three of the “tri-selected” are missing and that none of those selected by two juries appear in our Top 20. But that should not be long, especially for Philippe Jaenada, the author of Casualness is a beautiful thing. (Mialet Barrault), who is stamping his feet not far away.

In addition, one author, selected once, is present in the Top 20: Jérôme Ferrari, nominated by the Interallié jury for North Sentinel (Actes Sud), while Sandrine Collette, “lying” on the Goncourt list for Madelaine before dawn (Lattès), remains in the Top 30 (at 24th place).

When readers and jury members are in sync

We should also point out that five writers who are highly regarded here by readers do not appear on any list: this is the case for Amélie Nothomb (The Impossible ReturnAlbin Michel, 47,000 copies sold as of September 15), by Alice Zeniter (Hitting the epicFlammarion), by Olivier Guez (MesopotamiaGrasset) and Yasmina Khadra (Almond heartMiallet Barrault), (without forgetting the Stand up by Mélissa Da Costa at Albin Michel and the emergence of the (deceased) author of historical novels Lucinda Riley and the romance authors Chloe Walsh and Ema Dinkel). Finally, we will note these few novelists of spring who, not content with having spent the summer under the sun of the bookstores, are resisting at the dawn of autumn: Philippe Colin with The Ritz Bartender (Albin Michel), Morgane Moncomble with Seasons (t. I). An autumn to forgive you (Hugo Roman), published in September… 2003.

Conclusion? Well, it’s not so bad. For now, the members of literary juries and the customers of bookstores are relatively in sync. Especially since the lists were published very recently, readers can react these days, if they have faith in the good taste of the jurors, which we do not doubt, of course…

(1) In our great leniency, here is the list (unless I am mistaken) of the 7 novelists present in the first three selections: Kamel Daoud (Goncourt, Renaudot, Interallié), Thibault de Montaigu (idem), Olivier Norek (idem), Jean-Noël Orengo (idem), Gaël Faye (Goncourt, Renaudot, Femina), Miguel Bonnefoy (Renaudot, Femina, Médicis) and Etienne Kern (Goncourt, Femina, Renaudot).

And that of the 9 present in two selections: Philippe Jaenada (Goncourt, Renaudot), Abdellah Taïa (Goncourt, Médicis), Emmanuelle Lambert (Goncourt, Médicis), Abel Quentin ((Renaudot, Interallié), Benjamin de Laforcade (Renaudot, Femina), Julia Deck (Femina, Médicis), Shane Haddad (idem), Gabriella Zalapi (idem) and Pierre Adrian (Femina, Interallié).