We attended the Femina awards ceremony on Monday October 25th.
The Carnavalet museum opened its doors to us at 12:30 pm on a surprising decor: hung on the wall and suspended from the ceiling, rather old shop signs mingle with stars of David, wreaths and even a metal boat.
An impressive wooden staircase dominates the room.
Large windows overlook the garden admired by the various journalists and photographers present for the occasion.
In the living room, on the ground floor, the jury is still debating the dessert.
At the entrance there is the sign “Rue des Mauvaises Garages”.
After a few minutes of waiting, the president of the Femina jury Josyane Savigneau takes her place at the foot of the stairs.
It announces the long awaited results.
The Femina prize for the French novel is awarded to Clara Dupont-Monod for her
S'adapter
(Stock).
The president evokes the desire to crown a woman after the many previous male awards.
A minute after the announcement of the prize, Paula Jacques, one of the ten ladies of the jury, leaves the salon where they had just deliberated:
“It was bloody!”, She
comments.
"It was a painful experience, like childbirth, one wonders what face the winner will have",
recounts, for her part, the novelist Scholastique Mukasonga, new juror of the prestigious prize.
It will be understood that the deliberations were long and indecisive for this 2021 edition. With his novel To
adapt
(Stock), Clara Dupont-Monod was proclaimed winner after eight rounds of votes with six votes against four to Jean-Baptiste Del Amo, which is exceptional.
And, obviously, there were last minute reversals, because the “fight” during the first laps seemed to be played out between Del Amo and Thomas B. Reverdy, with his novel
Climax
(Flammarion).
Adapt
is the story of a family whose balance is upset by the birth of a disabled child.
Twenty minutes after the proclamation, Clara Dupont-Monod arrives, all smiling, from the top of the museum stairs, to cheers.
“I dedicate this award to all different beings who need attention.
This prize is also a way of making room for them, ”she said quite moved.
Moment of emotion with Ahmet Altan
The Foreign Femina Prize was awarded to Ahmet Altan for his novel
Madame Hayat
(at Actes Sud, translated by Julien Lapeyre de Cabanes).
Recall that the Turkish author, born in 1950, Ahmet Altan is one of the most renowned journalists in Turkey.
Accused of alleged involvement in the failed coup attempt of July 15, 2016, Ahmet Altan was imprisoned for more than four years in Istanbul before being released in April 2021 by order of the Court of Cassation of Turkey
.
Her novel,
Madame Hayat
, takes place in a city where fear reigns, the story of Fazil's passionate love for Madame Hayat, a voluptuous woman of mature age. A novel about the powers of the imagination in which literature is vital. He had already won the Transfuge prize for the best European novel in 2021.
At the Carnavalet Museum, its editor at Actes Sud, as well as Françoise Nyssen, the CEO of the publishing house, were present.
Great moment of emotion when Ahmet Altan posted a video with subtitles, as well as a letter read by his editor:
“Literature is a miracle.
“
Madame Hayat
”
was born in a prison courtyard which she illuminated with her irony and her teasing smile, and now she is roaming free in Paris.
She goes where I can't go.
This Femina Prize is much more than a literary prize, it pays tribute to all Turkish and Kurdish women.
It's a scent of freedom, ”
he wrote.
This award can save Ahmet Altan
Francoise Nyssen
As for the Femina of the essay, it distinguished
A Stranger Named Picasso: Police File No. 74664
(Fayard) by Annie Cohen-Solal. The book reviews the documents in this dossier and how it reflects the events of the century. For having failed to report his change of residence in France, Picasso had in fact been reported to the French police who made up a foreigner's file and he followed him until his request for naturalization in 1940.
Then everyone went to the cocktail offered by the museum - it was delicious!
Evelyne Bloch-Dano recalled that from December 16 to April 10, an entirely literary exhibition "Marcel Proust, a Proustian novel" was opened at the Carnavalet Museum, to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the birth of the author of
La Research.
The jury for the Femina Prize is made up of Nathalie Azoulai, Evelyne Bloch-Dano, Claire Gallois, Anne-Marie Garat, Paula Jacques, Christine Jordis, Scholastique Mukasonga, Mona Ozouf, Danièle Sallenave, Josyane Savigneau (president) and Patricia Reznikov.
With Lisette Didon and Pierrot Bacon