The first 16 novels selected by the Académie Goncourt – The Point

Almost all the big names in the literary season, with the notable exception of Serge Joncour, included in the first selection of the Goncourt Academy, which opened Tuesday season literary prizes. First chopping, the Academy chaired by Bernard Pivot has unveiled an initial list of 16 novels nominated for the most prestigious French literary prize.

All the great names of school are there. Found including the names of Karine Tuil ( The Carefree , Gallimard), Yasmina Reza ( Babylon , Flammarion), Laurent Mauvignier ( Continue midnight), Régis Jauffret ( Cannibals , Seuil), Jean-Paul Dubois ( The Succession L’Olivier). Only Serge Joncour, whose book Rest on me (Flammarion), was hailed by critics, is absent from the selection of Goncourt.

A rising star of the stage French rap songwriter Gaël Faye, already rewarded by the price of Fnac novel, appears by contrast in selecting the Goncourt for his first novel Small Country (Grasset). Another first-time novelist Frédéric Gros, meet to compete in Possessed (Albin Michel)

literary year. 560 363 novels French novels

Among the other surprises we find magyd cherfi, a member of the music group Zebda, which is also nominated for the Goncourt with My part of Gaul (Actes Sud) . Historian Ivan Jablonka is also in the selection for Laëtitia or end men (Threshold), a story about Perrais Laetitia, a young 18 year old woman brutally murdered in January 2011. There also a thriller in the selection, L’Affaire Léon Sadors k i (Robert Laffont) Romain Slocombe.

winner of the booksellers of the city of Nancy, Jean-Baptiste Del Amo is selected for animal Kingdom (Gallimard), a great novel about the drift of fierce humanity to dominate nature. In the last three years, the winner of the Nancy booksellers received the Goncourt. Questioned by AFP about this phenomenon, the writer Philippe Claudel, one of the ten members of the jury Goncourt, feigned surprise. “Oh! Really?” Said he said with a smile.

The jury Renaudot must present his own party list. A total of 560 novels, including 363 French novels began in recent weeks to fill bookstores.

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the return of novels reached juries literary awards in June. Philippe Claudel indicates reading “a hundred”. The ten members of the Goncourt Academy, two “new”, Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt and Virginie Despentes, will meet again on 4 and 27 October before putting their prices on 3 November.

Receive a price, a boon for publishers

the books selected by the jury of the Goncourt are also vying for the Goncourt school students, a price that has taken over time a more important and greater. Renaudot will be awarded at the same time and same place as the Goncourt. Previously there have been Femina (October 25), the Grand Prize Novel of the French Academy (October 27) and Medicis (November 2).

Receiving an award remains a boon for publishers. An award-winning novel means commercial success. According to research firm GfK on sales of award-winning books between 2010 and 2014, a Goncourt sells an average of 395 000 copies. The Goncourt high school students exceeds 330,000 copies, the Grand Prize of the French Academy Novel sold over 220 000 copies and the Renaudot reached 200 000.

Winner of last year Renaudot Goncourt and high school students to Based on a true story (JC Lattes), Delphine de Vigan was sold on 31 December 2015 more than 360 000 copies of his book. The Goncourt 2015, Compass (Actes Sud) Mathias Énard sometimes considered a demanding book had sold over 200,000 copies. As for Boualem Sansal winner with Heddi Kaddour, Grand Prize Novel of the French Academy, he has sold nearly 190,000 copies of his 2084: the end of the world (Gallimard)