The Prix Goncourt, France’s most prestigious literary prize, is being awarded for the 120th time this year and goes to the author Brigitte Giraud for the novel “Vivre Vite”, which was published by the Flammarion publishing house. In it, she deals with the death of her husband, who died in a motorcycle accident in 1999 while he was on his way to pick up their son from school. Giraud was born in Algeria in 1960 and grew up in Lyon, where she still lives. She always knew that she would have to write about this stroke of fate, she said in an interview about her book, but she needed the 20 years distance to be able to do it.
The Italian and Swiss author and political consultant Giuliano da Empoli, who was considered a favorite with his novel “La Mage du Kremlin” (Gallimard), went away empty-handed with the decision for Giraud.
At the same time as the Prix Goncourt, the country’s second major literary prize, the Prix Renaudot, is awarded. Simon Liberati will receive it in 2022 for the novel “Performance”. It tells the story of a 71-year-old writer who has had a stroke and who accepts an assignment to write a mini-series about the Rolling Stones. He was also born in 1960, and his books have not yet been translated into German.