Goncourt, Renaudot, Femina... Time for the juries of the literary prizes to choose

Europe1 .fr /Photo credits:JOEL SAGET / AFP 11:25 am, November 06, 2023

The time has come to choose for the jurors of the Goncourt and other literary prizes, who will have to decide this week among the novels of the 2023 school year. The most prestigious of these autumn prizes, the Goncourt, is awarded on Tuesday at midday at the Drouant restaurant, as has been the tradition for more than a century.

The Renaudot, as it does every year, announces its winner immediately afterwards, at the same place. On Monday, the Prix Femina opens this week under the sign of literature in Paris, at the Musée Carnavalet. And on Thursday, the Prix Médicis, which closes it, at the restaurant La Méditerranée.

>> ALSO READ – France's Brigitte Giraud wins the Prix Goncourt for "Vivre vite"

All these prices are the guarantee of boosting sales during the last two months of the year, the most important for booksellers. It is estimated that, on average, a Prix Goncourt sells around 400,000 copies. But that's just an average. If, for example, the 2020 Goncourt, "L'Anomalie" by Hervé Le Tellier, has now sold more than one million copies, the 2022 Goncourt, "Vivre vite" by Brigitte Giraud, has remained below 300,000.

Favorite Reinhardt

The order in which these awards are presented – which changes every year – matters. Deciding first gives a jury greater latitude, as it seems impossible to crown the same book one or more days apart. Neige Sinno, with "Triste tigre" (POL editions), is the favourite to win the Prix Femina on Monday. Her account of the incest she suffered as a child, coupled with an essay on sexual violence, has captured the imagination.

For this Femina 2023, she is facing three men and one woman. And Jean-Baptiste Andrea, with "Watching Over Her," is another well-placed contender. Both were finalists for the Goncourt awarded the next day, along with Éric Reinhardt ("Sarah, Susanne and the Writer") and Gaspard Koenig ("Humus").

Of the six literary journalists interviewed by the magazine Livres Hebdo for their prognosis, one sees Neige Sinno winning the Goncourt, while two bet on Jean-Baptiste Andrea, and three are convinced that this is the year of Éric Reinhardt.

>> ALSO READ – The greatest success of the Prix Goncourt: "L'Épervier de Maheux" by Jean Carrière in 1972

This novelist who has built a loyal readership, as evidenced by the crowds he attracts to each public debate, has a rather meagre record in literary prizes, with the 58 Renaudot Prize for High School Students for "L'Amour et les Forêts" at the age of 2014. He also belonged to the most influential house of French literature, Gallimard.

'Divisive'

But, as Pierre Assouline, a Goncourt juror, pointed out in August, his work and his personality are "divisive". "Sarah, Susanne and the Writer" does not escape this judgment, with an original form of dialogue between an author and a woman transformed into a fictional double, which has more or less convinced its readers.

Jean-Baptiste Andrea, a more consensual man, is published by an independent publishing house, L'Iconoclaste. And "Watching Over Her" represents in this finale of the Goncourt the romantic, even romantic, invention, with a fresco of more than 500 pages that mixes the history of Italy in the twentieth century, a thwarted love and a passion for art.

>> ALSO READ – Awarding of the Prix Goncourt and the Prix Renaudot: Baptiste Liger is the guest of Culture médias

Gaspard Koenig's ambitious "Humus" (published by L'Observatoire) would create a surprise by winning the Goncourt. But this very topical novel about the torments of agronomy students for the future of our planet has a lot to please the jury of the Prix Renaudot.

Among the other favourites of the Renaudot: Sorj Chalandon with "L'Enragé". It is published by Grasset, the company that had already won this prize in 2022. Finally, the Medici still has eight contenders, including Éric Reinhardt and Neige Sinno, but also young revelations such as Morocco's Salma El Moumni and Franco-Swiss Elisa Shua Dusapin.