the circle of award-winning authors this fall (and already gone) – L’Express

Let’s leave aside the big names of the school year, whether crowned with prizes or not, like Kamel Daoud, Gaël Faye, Miguel Bonnefoy, Sandrine Collette (the very fresh Goncourt of the high school students), Olivier Norek, Olivier Tournut, Han Kang or even Valérie Perrin, Marc Levy, Michel Bussi, Philippe Colin, Maxime Chattam… all present in our list. And let’s take a look, just for once, at all these literary prize-winners who have not (or no longer) had the good fortune to attract your attention. Starting with the Prix des Deux Magots by Jean-Pierre Montal for North face (Séguier), a wonderful “love novel” which has so far only sold 1,800 copies (according to Edistat). Likewise, the Wepler-Fondation de la Poste Prize, Thomas Clerc, author of Paris museum of the 21st century. The eighteenth arrondissement (Editions de Minuit, 4,000 copies), the literary prize of the Ecrivains de Marine, Arnaud de La Grange, who publishes The Promise of the Sea (Gallimard, 4,800 copies) and the winner of Talent Cultura, Stéphanie Perez, for The Ballerina of kyiv (Récamier, 5,000 copies) could they use a little help?

Remaining, on the French side, among the prize-winners absent from our fiction list, Julia Deck (Medici Prize) and her Ann of England (Threshold, 6,500 copies), Abdellah Taïa (December prize) for The Bastion of Tears (Julliard, 9,000 copies), Thibault de Montaigu (Interallié prize) and his Heart (Albin Michel, 11,000 copies) and Marie Vingtras (Fnac novel prize), author of Fierce souls (L’Olivier, accredited with 22,000 copies). Nothing dishonorable in these figures but a few additional sales would certainly not be unwelcome.

This is even more true for the year’s foreign winners. Thus the formidable Hisham Matar, just crowned with the prize for Best Foreign Book for My friends (translated from English by David Fauquemberg, Gallimard, 2,200 copies), by Eduardo Halfon, Médicis stranger for Tarantula (translated from Spanish (Guatemala) by David Fauquemberg, Quai Voltaire, 1,800 copies), by Alia Trabucco Zerán, Femina stranger for Own (translated from Spanish by Anne Plantagenet, Robert Laffont, 3,500 copies) or by Nathan Hill, Grand Prize for American Literature for Well-being (translated from English by Nathalie Bru, Gallimard, 17,000 copies).

A look, finally, at the tests. Those of Anna Funder, prize for Best Foreign Book in the essay category for The Invisible Mrs. Orwell (translated from English by Carine Chichereau, Héloïse d’Ormesson, 1,000 copies), by Sébastien Lapaque, Renaudot essay for Checkmate in paradise (Actes sud, 3,200 copies) and Paul Audi, Femina essay for Stand your ground (Stock, 1,000 copies) would require a little more haste. In this regard, let us point out the entries of the week, namely, the memories of the navigator Olivier de Kersauson, Before the memory fades. Some maritime remarks… (Editions du Cherche Midi), by former German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Freedom (Albin Michel) and Eddy Michell, Autobiography (Le Cherche Midi).