She evokes the story of a sibling, overwhelmed by the arrival of a disabled child. A story that thousands of families have already lived, each in their own way. With his novel Adapt, the author Clara Dupont-Monod has captured the hearts of young audiences. This Thursday, she received the Goncourt Prize for High School Students, awarded as every year in Rennes but whose jury is made up of high school students from all over France.
Published by Stock, the novel was elected in the first ballot, with 8 votes out of 13, among the five finalist novels, said the young jurors. Already crowned with the Femina Prize, the 48-year-old editor and journalist was very touched by this new consecration. “I am really very moved. It’s a bit as if they were welcoming these siblings who had to adapt, I’m really very moved, ”Clara Dupont-Monod responded by phone, sobs in her voice.
“It is played from school: in a generation you can change the look.” Clara Dupont-Monod on the difficulty of “finding a place” for disabled children # LGLf5 @ France5tv @EditionsStock pic.twitter.com/MTX427FOgD
– La Grande Librairie (@GrandeLibrairie) November 17, 2021
Each year since the creation of the Goncourt des Lycéens in 1988, around 2,000 high school students from all over France participate in the choice of the winner. Three other women – Christine Angot, already winner of the Medici Prize for The trip to the east (Flammarion), Anne Berest for Postcard (Grasset) and Liliane Hassaine for Bitter sun (Gaillimard) – and a man – Patrice Franceschi with If only one remains (Grasset) were selected among the finalists.
In 2020, the Goncourt high school student prize was awarded to Djaïli Amadou Amal for his novel Les Impatientes.