Audrey Azoulay, Minister of Culture and Communication, extends her warm congratulations to the women who have been awarded today with major literary prizes.

Leïla Slimani, winner of the 2016 Goncourt Award for Sweet song (Gallimard) , a cruel and modern tale, portrays the servitudes of our modern lives brilliantly, but also the ambiguous relationship tinged with class relations that weaves between a model nanny and a family.

By putting the reader in confidence from the very first lines, Leïla Slimani makes us uncomfortable witnesses of an infernal drift at the tragic end, fueling our own fears.

Yasmina Reza, winner of the 2016 Renaudot Prize for Babylon (Flammarion) , brilliantly sheds light on the enigma of beings when an extraordinary event arises in a banal daily life through the account of a diverse fact as dramatic as it is crazy served by a true art of detail.

Audrey Azoulay also salutes Aude Lancelin, winner of the 2016 Renaudot Essai Prize for The free world (Les liens qui libèrent) and Stéphanie Janicot, winner of the Renaudot Poche Award for The memory of the world: integral (The Pocket Book).