Gaël Faye’s second novel Jacarandawon Prix Renaudot 2024 in Paris, France on Monday, November 4, 2024.
Prix Renaudot is a French literary prize awarded to the author of an outstanding original novel published in the previous year. It was created by ten art critics awaiting the results of deliberations of the Prix Goncourt jury in 1926. It was named for Théophraste Renaudot, who founded La Gazette (later La Gazette de France), an influential weekly newspaper. Some of its winners have been Michel del Castillo, Édouard Glissant, Michel Butor, Jean Cayrol, Louis Aragon, Louis-Ferdinand Céline, and Marcel Aymé.
This year, the jury is chaired by Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio, accompanied by Jean-Noël Pancrazi, Georges-Olivier Châteaureynaud, Dominique Bona, Franz-Olivier Giesbert, Patrick Besson, Frédéric Beigbeder, Cécile Guilbert, Stéphanie Janicot and Mohammed Aïssaoui. This panel announced the first selection of books in the running in prose (novels) and nonfiction (essays) on Thursday, September 5. The winner made public on Monday is Gaël Faye’s novel Jacaranda. The novel which is Faye’s second novel comes with the following blurb;
What secrets does the shadow of the jacaranda, Stella’s favorite tree, hide? It will take her friend Milan years to discover it. Years to pierce the silences of Rwanda, devastated after the Tutsi genocide. By giving back their voice to the disappeared, the young people will escape solitude. And find peace near the magnificent shores of Lake Kivu. Over four generations, with his unique gentleness, Gaël Faye tells us the terrible story of a country that despite everything tries to dialogue and forgive. Like a tree standing between darkness and light, Jacaranda celebrates humanity, paradoxical, loving, alive.
Gaël Faye said after his win, “Renaudot Awards 2024! Thank you for your messages🙏 Thank you friends, family, readers of Jacaranda, Thanks to the teams of Editions Grasset and Fasquelle Unforgettable Wicked Monday✨”
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