The Prix Médicis for the French novel, penultimate of the major autumn literary prizes, was awarded on Tuesday, November 8 to Emmanuelle Bayamack-Tam for The Thirteenth Hourpublished by POL editions.
” I am glad. I feel like I’m part of a line”she welcomed during a press conference, citing former winners like Georges Perec, Mathieu Lindon or Marie Darrieussecq. “It’s a novel of course, but also a tribute to poetry (…) I can only say once again how proud I am to have this very good prize”rejoiced the 56-year-old French teacher. The Thirteenth Hour tells the story of Farah, a teenager who lives in community in a millennial feminist, queer and animalist church, where Nerval or Rimbaud are recited.
The other seven finalists were Diaty Diallo for Two seconds of burning air (Threshold), Virginie Despentes for Dear asshole (Grasset), Claudie Hunzinger for A dog at my table (Grasset), Victor Jestin for The dancing man (Flammarion), Olivia Rosenthal for A monkey at my window (Verticals), Monica Sabolo for The Clandestine Life (Gallimard) and Anne Serre for Our dear old lady (Mercury from France).
The Medici Prize for Foreign Novel went to Andrei Kurkov for Gray Bees (Liana Levi editions), a novel about the absurdity of the conflict sparked by pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine in 2014. The Medici prize for essay was awarded to Georges Didi-Huberman for The Witness to the End (Les Editions de Minuit).
After the Medici, the Interallié prize will mark the end of the literary prize season on Wednesday. The Goncourt was awarded Thursday to Brigitte Giraud for live fast (Flammarion) and the Femina on Tuesday at Claudie Hunzinger for A dog at my tablealso selected by the Medici jury.
In 2021, the Prix Médicis was awarded to Christine Angot for The Journey to the East (Flammarion).