Ananda Devi

Ananda Devi receives Prix de la langue Française 2023.

Ananda Devi was awarded Prix de la Langue Française 2023 on Thursday, October 19, 2023.

Prix de la langue Française is a French language prize that distinguishes a personality from the literary, artistic or scientific world, whose work contributes significantly to illustrating the quality and beauty of the French language. An initiative of the city of Brive started in 1986 and endowed with 10,000 euros, some of its previous winners have been Nathacha Appanah and Louis-Philippe Dalembert.

The jury this year was composed of Laure Adler, Tahar Ben Jelloun, Éric Fottorino, Franz-Olivier Giesbert, Paula Jacques, Dany Laferrière, Alain Mabanckou, Éric Neuhoff, Jean-Noël Pancrazi and Danièle Sallenave. They gave the award this year to Ananda Devi.

Devi has published collections of poems, short stories and novels, notably Ève de ses décombres (Gallimard, Prix des Cinq Continents, Prix RFO), Le sari vert (Gallimard, Prix Louis Guilloux ), Manger l’autre (Grasset, Ouest France-Étonnants Voyageurs prize), Le rire des déesses (Grasset, Prix Femina des lycéens, Grand Prix du Novel Métis), and Sylvia P. (Bruno Doucey, Grand Prix de l’Héroine – Madame Figaro).

The writer whose recent work Le Jour Des Chameleons (Editions Grasset) “brilliantly handles the French language, which she makes by turns tender and ironic, sharp and poetic. It is a novel that is impossible to put down, which plunges us into the chaos of men. The narrator, Mauritius, makes her voice heard to tell of this day when everything will explode: the city, the hatred, perhaps the island. Through four characters, humanity is shown. Strange animals are patiently waiting for humans to finish destroying what is left for them to live alone in peace: chameleons.”

The Mauritian writer will receive her award on November 10, during the inauguration of the 41st Brive Book Fair.

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