the jury of The prix Medicis has chosen “the unexpected”, attributing Wednesday, its price to book of Ivan Jablonka, “Laëtitia or the ” end of men” (Threshold), a work which is not a novel, but reminiscent of “what we can do with literature in the face of the cruelty of the real”.
The book traces the tragic story of Laëtitia Perrais, 18 years old, raped and murdered in January 2011 near Pornic (Loire-Atlantique).
“I have a thought for Laëtitia, for her sister Jessica, and for all their loved ones,” commented the writer in recognizing the “extraordinary honour”.
“I believe that the humanities are literature, and literature is good for the human sciences”, he stressed.
This story, hailed almost unanimously by critics, had already won the literary prize of the newspaper The World and the price Process of the best essay. He received 4 votes in the first round of voting, compared to 3 in favor of Nathacha Appanah (“Tropic of violence”, Gallimard) and one in favour of Céline Minard (“The great game”, Shores)
“This was not an easy choice,” admitted Alain Veinstein, president of the jury Medicis, who insisted on the “unexpected” to the list that does not reward”, nor a novel, nor an essay”. The book “reminds us what we can do with literature in the face of the cruelty of the real”.
In fact, the discussions between the nine members of the jury were “quite lively” and “passionate,” admitted Frederic Mitterrand, member of the jury.
six other titles in the running for the award were all novels.
- Triumph of the Threshold -
The Medicis alien has been attributed to the Swede Steve Sem-Sandberg to “The elect” (Robert Laffont) and the Medicis test to Jacques Henric for “Boxing” (Threshold).
The trial of Jacques Henric (also in the running for the December prices) paints the portraits of great power moves such as Georges Carpentier, Marcel Cerdan, Mohamed Ali or Mike Tyson. “The elect” was in the context of a centre for children with disabilities, or offenders in Vienna at the beginning of the Second world war.
the name of The new winner of the Medicis had been cited in the first selections of the Goncourt and the Renaudot.
sensitive Portrait of Laëtitia Perrais, the book also takes an x-ray, without complacency, of the France of the early Twenty-first century.
sociologist, Ivan Jablonka, 43 years, raised questions about “the enormous misery that our company’s product”. The story is treated as an object of history. It is a question of the inequalities which divide individuals from early childhood, the role of the media, the lack of resources allocated to the justice, of policy, as when it seeks, as was the case at the time of the tragedy, to exploit a tragedy for partisan purposes.
Ivan Jablonka has interviewed the witnesses of the tragedy, including Jessica, the twin of Laëtitia, met with the actors of the investigation, attended the appeal trial of the murderer in 2015.
The lawyer, Jessica, Cécile de Oliveira, very present in the book, was greeted with “a great joy” this award and praised “the work of repair aesthetics of the memory of Laëtitia” directed by the author.
Professor of contemporary history at the university of Paris XIII, a researcher in the social sciences, Ivan Jablonka is never jargonnant. An infinite rigour, his book is also a literary quality outstanding.
Laëtitia was very young with Jessica’s home and then in foster care. His death has taken on a character of sordid when his dismembered body was found in two ponds.
Arrested the day after the murder, Tony Meilhon, a thirty-year-old child dented, will taunt the justice system and the investigators, by his silence. Only their stubbornness will recover, almost three months later, the bust of the girl, allowing finally her funeral in June 2011.
on the side of The publishers, Olivier Bétourné, the patron saint of the Threshold, has managed the feat of placing two of his books in the top of the Medicis.
This jeopardizes the chances that the author home Régis Jauffret can win the Goncourt or the Renaudot, awarded Thursday ? “But that’s not all, on the contrary,” he answered, laughing to the AFP.
02/11/2016 20:05:48 – Paris (AFP) – © 2016 AFP
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