2023-11-06 14:12:50
The novelist won the Femina Prize with her account of the incest she suffered as a child.
The Femina Prize was awarded Monday to Neige Sinno, 46, for Sad Tiger (POL editions), an account of the incest of which she was a victim as a child, and an essay on sexual violence.
Neige Sinno, who was the favorite for this prize, received nine votes out of 12 in the first round from the exclusively female jury.
“The subject that my book deals with is not a subject for women, nor for men, nor for any other,” she declared after the announcement of the prize at the Carnavalet museum in Paris.
“It reminds me of my thesis defense where there were also only women among the professors. (…) It’s a source of pride, in addition, to be encouraged,” she added.
Neige Sinno is also a finalist for the Goncourt prize, awarded on Tuesday. She should not receive the grand autumn literary prize for a second consecutive day, which a priori leaves three possible winners: Jean-Baptiste Andrea, Gaspard Koenig and Eric Reinhardt.
“A book is feminine”
The Femina prize for foreign novel was awarded to American Louise Erdrich, 69, for La Sentence (Albin Michel), the story of a Native American bookseller confronted with the ghosts of the past and the racism of the present.
Present at the award ceremony, the author recalled that, like the heroine of the novel, she ran a bookstore in Minneapolis, in the north of the United States, dedicated to indigenous literature. “It’s also a haunted place,” she pointed out. The American novelist obtained seven votes out of 12 in the first round.
Finally, the jury awarded its essay prize, by nine votes in the first round, to Hugo Micheron, 35, a specialist in jihadism, for La Colère et l’Oubli (Gallimard). The essay examines the radical and violent Islamist movements in Europe after the collapse of the Islamic State organization in Syria.
The author said he was happy with the achievement of “three years of work”. “For me, a book is feminine. And receiving this prize is the greatest reward for me,” he said.
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