Novelist Constance Joly received the Orange Book Prize on Wednesday for her second novel
Over the Rainbow
, a moving account of her homosexual father's struggles.
Published in January by Flammarion, the book was hailed by critics as very fair and modest.
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In short chapters, the author addresses this man who decided, in 1968, to leave the family he founded to live with a man. She was seven years old, and did not immediately understand what was going on. “
You swam against the tide until you were thirty-seven and you almost drowned in the waves of this life that was not yours. It took you a long time to come to terms with being yourself
, ”she writes. This father died of AIDS in 1992. Constance Joly, after a career in publishing, is now a consultant and literary agent. She succeeds Guillaume Sire, who won last year for
Before the Long Red Flame.
The Orange Book Prize, whose jury is chaired by academician Jean-Christophe Rufin, since 2009 rewards fiction published between January and March. "
It is distinguished by the diversity of voters: authors, booksellers and readers
" and is endowed with 15,000 euros, recalled the Orange Foundation, supported by the telecoms group.
