Beata Umubyeyi Mairesse’s book Le Convoi won Franz-Hessel-Preis 2024 in Leipzig, Germany on Friday, March 28, 2025.
Franz-Hessel-Preis or Franz Hessel Prize for Contemporary Literature is a literary prize of France and Germany for French and German authors, worth €10,000 per author. The prize was created as a tribute to the writer and translator Franz Hessel, who was “a bridge between the two countries and the two cultures, through his life and work with Romance parisienne and Promenade dans Berlin” in 2010. This Franco-German prize is conceived and organized by the Villa Gillet in Lyon and the Genshagen Foundation in the Land of Brandenburg (next to Berlin). It is supported by the German Federal Government for Culture and Media and the French Ministry of Culture and Communication.
The 2025 jury was composed of Nils C. Ahl, Lucie Campos, Francesca Isidori, Christine de Mazières, and Augustin Trapenard for the French title and Thorsten Dönges, Hans-Peter Kunish, Petra Metz, and Ulrike Vedder for the German title. They announced the winners, Beata Umubyeyi Mairesse’s book Le Convoi winning in the French category and Zora del Buono for Seinetwegen (C.H. Beck) in the German category, at the Leipzig Book Fair.
Le Convoi (English: The Convoy) comes with the blurb, “On June 18, 1994, shortly before the end of the genocide, Beata Umubyeyi Mairesse was able to flee Rwanda with her mother thanks to a convoy from the Swiss organization Terre des hommes. Thirty years later, she recounts the path that led her to this book, the investigation with journalists, humanitarians, and survivors to find the “missing image” – a photo of her and her mother in this convoy that saved them – the days spent hidden in hotel rooms, the reign of barbarism in indifference, the life that hung by a thread on so many occasions.
Beata Umubyeyi Mairesse said, “Infinite gratitude for the Franz-Hessel-Preis received yesterday at the Leipzig Book Fair. This Franco-German prize for contemporary literature is awarded jointly by the @villa_gillet and the Genshagen Foundation. It was presented to us, along with Zora del Buono, co-winner for German, by the German Minister of Culture and the French Ambassador. Many thanks to the members of the wonderful Franco-German jury and to the fairies who leaned over the cradle of Convoy since its publication… Walter Benjamin said of his friend Franz Hessel that he was a magician. More than 80 years after their tragic deaths, a bit of that literary magic still lingers in the air.”
This is a highly decorated book, winning awards like Grand Prix de l’Héroïne Madame Figaro and Prix France Télévisions.
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