Amira Ghenim’s novel Le désastre de la maison des notables won Prix de la Littérature Arabe 2024 on Monday, October 28, 2024.
The Prix de la Littérature Arabe is awarded to a writer, a national of a member country of the Arab League, and an author of a published book – novel, collection of short stories or poems – written in French or translated from Arabic into French. Created by the Jean-Luc Lagardère Foundation and the Institut Du Monde Arabe in 2013, it is the only French award distinguishing Arab literary creation with the winner winning a cash prize of 10,000 euros. Previous winners have been Jabbour Douaihy (2013), Mohammed al-Fakharany (2014), Mohammed Hasan Alwan (2015), Inaam Kachachi (2016), Sinan Antoon (2017), Omar Robert Hamilton (2018), Mohammed Abdelnabi (2019), and Abdelaziz Baraka Sakin (2020).
The jury, chaired by Pierre Leroy, Managing Director of the Jean-Luc Lagardère Foundation, announced the shortlist on Saturday, July 13. The winner has been revealed to be Le désastre de la maison des notables (English: The disaster of the house of notables), Amira Ghenim, translated from Arabic to French by Souad Labbize (Philippe Rey – Barzakh – Khamsa collection)
Pierre Leroy called the award-winning entry,” an intense novel, interweaving family intrigue and great History, which paints a complex and nuanced portrait of a Tunisia in full transformation. All the members of the jury and I also salute the unique style of the author who, thanks to an elaborate narrative process, has been able to give birth to a powerful work, carried by a new collection that highlights Arabic-language literature from the Maghreb, which is still too often deprived of an echo in France.”
Amira Ghenim said of the win, “I am very happy to make Tunisian literature shine in the French-speaking world and I hope that the American version of the novel which will be published in January 2025 will be as successful.”
Tunisian novelist Dr Amira Ghenim is also a professor of linguistics at the Tunisian University, Faculty of Literature and Human Sciences at Sousse, and a member of its scientific board. She holds a PhD in linguistics and she is the secretary general of the Arab Women Innovators Association in Sousse, founder of the Former Advisors of Sousse Municipality, member of the editorial boards of several Arab journals specialized in linguistics, and member of literary juries at both the national and international levels. She won the National Philosophy Award (1996), the Presidential Award for Arabic (2000), the Tunisia International Book Fair Translation Award (2017), and the National Translation Award (2018). In addition to her academic activities, Ghenim is a producer of cultural radio programs and in 2014, she received an award from the Arab Radios Union for her radio program “Women of My Country”. She received the Ibn Khaldoun Shield from the Tunisian Ministry of Cultural Affairs (2018), and the Sheikh Rashid bin Hamad Al-Sharqi Award for her novel “Al Malaf Al Asfar” (2020), the Kumar Award for her novel “Nazilat Dar Al Akaber” (The Calamity of the Nobility) (2020). Its novel “Nazilat Dar Al Akaber” was selected for the shortlist of the International Prize of Arabic Fiction (2021).
Amira Ghenim will be feted at a ceremony scheduled for November 27, 2024, at the Arab World Institute, in the presence of Jack Lang, President of the IMA.
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