Roselyne Bachelot-Narquin congratulates the winners of the 2021 Renaudot and Goncourt Awards, Amélie Nothomb and Mohamed Mbougar Sarr.
Rewarding Amélie Nothomb for her novel First Blood (Albin Michel), the jury of the Renaudot Prize distinguishes a virtuoso work, as complex as it is touching. In this fictional autobiography of her own father, written in the first person, the novelist gives him a fantastic and particularly moving tribute, where the story oscillates between family and national history, social and intimate fresco.
Mohamed Mbougar Sarr received the Goncourt Prize for his fourth novel, The most secret memory of men, becoming one of its youngest laureates at the age of 31. Co-published by the French editions Philippe Rey and the Senegalese editions Jimsaan, this book bears the colours of the Francophonie.
During an investigation full of suspense, Mohamed Mbougar Sarr takes the reader in the footsteps of the Senegalese writer T. C. Elimane, disappeared after having published his major work, The Labyrinth of the Inhuman. With powerful prose that mixes fiction narration, fictional journals and false archives, the writer delivers an engaged reflection on the beneficial or evil powers of literature.