This is one of the great autumn prizes which has just been awarded to François-Henri Désrable, this Thursday, October 28 at 4 p.m. Created in 1914, the Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française distinguishes one of the best titles of the literary season. The immortals have chosen the author of
My master and my winner
(Gallimard). Barely: he obtained, in the third ballot, ten votes against nine votes to Gilles Martin-Chauffier, author of the
Last Tribun
(Grasset). The third candidate was Mohamed Mbougar Sarr with
The Most Secret Memory of Men
(Éditions Philippe Rey, in co-edition with the Senegalese publishing house Jimsaan).
The latter is however the phenomenon of the start of the 2021 school year, present on all the lists of grand prix, he is still in the running for the Goncourt and the Renaudot proclaimed on November 3.
The immortals have a lot of ideas, since they had already distinguished Désérable in 2013 for his first title,
You will show my head to the people
(Gallimard), with the Amic Prize, a creation grant awarded by the French Academy.
To read also François-Henri Désrable, head to price
In
My Master and My Winner
, a writer is summoned by an examining magistrate following the arrest of his best friend, Vasco. The judge shows him the poems written by the latter. The narrator then delivers the details of the passionate and tormented story between Vasco and Tina. Way to revisit the famous trio, the wife, the husband and the lover. In
Le Figaro Magazine
of October 29, Jean-Christophe Buisson said the greatest good about it: “
His fourth book definitively places François-Henri Désrable among the best writers of his generation. On the most banal subject in the world, he constructs a romantic tale that is at the same time breathless, poetic, cruel, feverish and funny. Nothing more difficult than to be, on the feelings and the couple, a moralist without being a moralizer. FHD does this admirably. "
François-Henri Désrable is the author of three books at Éditions Gallimard, including
Évariste
and
Un certain M. Piekielny
(around the figure of Romain Gary). For
My Master and My Winner
, his publisher had warned: "
In this new twirling novel, he lets perceive a sensitive knowledge of the torments of love."
This former professional ice hockey player stood out from the start. Our collaborator Anne Fulda had flair, she had signed a striking portrait of the young man with the title "
Head at a price
"! It was in October 2017. Well done.
The reward is endowed with 10,000 €.
Last year, the winner was Étienne de Montety, director of
Le Figaro littéraire
, for
La Grande Érium
(Stock).
He succeeded Laurent Binet, Camille Pascal, Daniel Rondeau and Adélaïde de Clermont-Tonnerre.
Désrable joins a prestigious list of awards where we distinguish, among others, Éric Neuhoff, Pascal Quignard, Amélie Nothomb, Anne Wiazemesky, Patrick Rambaud, Alphonse Boudard, Franz-Olivier Giesbert, François Sureau, Paule Constant, Pierre Schoendoerffer, Michel Déon, Jean d'Ormesson, Patrick Modiano, Mauriac, Kessel ...
