Sorj Chalandon | |
---|---|
Born | Tunis, French Protectorate of Tunisia | 16 May 1952
Occupation | Novelist, journalist |
Nationality | French |
Notable works | Return to Killybegs |
Notable awards | Albert Londres Prize Prix Médicis Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française |
Sorj Chalandon (born 16 May 1952 in Tunis) is a French writer and journalist. [1]
Chalandon grew up in Lyon with his parents and brother. [2] His father was intensely paranoid and violent, making his family life difficult. When Chalandon was ten years old, his grandfather revealed to him that his father had been a Nazi collaborator during the Second World War, contrary to the heroic stories his father had told him throughout his childhood. [3] It was not until 2020 that he knew the true nature and extent of his father's collaboration, six years after his father's death. His memoir on this subject, Enfant de salaud, was shortlisted for the Prix Goncourt in 2021. [4]
At the age of 21, he became a cartoonist at Libération. He worked as a journalist for the newspaper from 1973 until 2007, where, among other things, he covered events in Lebanon, Iran, Iraq, Somalia and Afghanistan. In 1988 he received the Albert-Londres Prize for his articles on Northern Ireland and the Klaus Barbie trial. [5] Since his departure from Libération, he has worked for the satirical-investigative newspaper Le Canard enchaîné . [1]
After a long career in journalism, he turned to literature; he wrote Le Petit Bonzi in 2005, thinking that it would be his first and last novel. [6] However, he went on to write several others, many of which have received literary prizes. His second novel, Une promesse (2006), won the Prix Médicis, [7] and his 2011 novel Return to Killybegs won the Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française and was shortlisted for the Prix Goncourt. [8]
The Prix Goncourt is a prize in French literature, given by the académie Goncourt to the author of "the best and most imaginative prose work of the year". The prize carries a symbolic reward of only 10 euros, but results in considerable recognition and book sales for the winning author. Four other prizes are also awarded: prix Goncourt du Premier Roman, prix Goncourt de la Nouvelle, prix Goncourt de la Poésie (poetry) and prix Goncourt de la Biographie (biography). Of the "big six" French literary awards, the Prix Goncourt is the best known and most prestigious. The other major literary prizes include the Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française, the Prix Femina, the Prix Renaudot, the Prix Interallié and the Prix Médicis.
Andreï Sergueïevitch Makine is a French novelist. He also publishes under the pseudonym Gabriel Osmonde. Makine's novels include Dreams of My Russian Summers (1995) which won two top French awards, the Prix Goncourt and the Prix Médicis. He was elected to seat 5 of the Académie Française on 3 March 2016, succeeding Assia Djebar.
François Nourissier was a French journalist and writer.
Fouad Laroui is a Moroccan economist and writer, born in Oujda, Morocco. After his studies at the Lycée Lyautey (Casablanca), he joined the prestigious École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées, where he studied engineering. After working shortly for the Office Cherifien des Phosphates company in Khouribga (Morocco), he moved to the United Kingdom where he spent several years in Cambridge and York. Later he obtained a PhD in economics and moved to Amsterdam where he started his career as a writer. He has published about twenty books between novels, collections of short stories and essays and two collections of poetry in Dutch. He has won several literary prizes, amongst which the Prix Goncourt de la nouvelle, the Prix Jean-Giono and the Grande Médaille de la littérature de l'Académie française.
Le Grand Prix du Roman is a French literary award, created in 1914, and given each year by the Académie française. Along with the Prix Goncourt, the award is one of the oldest and most prestigious literary awards in France. The Académie française gives out over 60 literary awards each year, and the Grand Prix du roman is the most senior for an individual novel.
Louis-Philippe Dalembert is a Haitian poet and novelist. He writes in both French and Haitian creole. His works have been translated into several languages. He now divides his home between Paris and Port-au-Prince.
Giuliano da Empoli is an Italian and French political essayist and novelist. He is the founding chairman of Volta, a think tank based in Milan and a professor at Sciences Po Paris. In 2022, he published his debut novel Le Mage du Kremlin, for which he received the Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française.
Éditions Grasset is a French publishing house founded in 1907 by Bernard Grasset (1881–1955). Grasset publishes French and foreign literature, essays, novels and children's books, among others.
Gwenaëlle Aubry is a French novelist and philosopher.
Geneviève Fauconnier was a French novelist who lived in the south of the Charente département, (France). She was one of the most sensitive members of the so-called Groupe de Barbezieux. She won the Prix Femina in 1933 with her novel Claude.
Return to Killybegs is a 2011 novel by the French writer Sorj Chalandon. The narrative is inspired by the 2006 murder of Denis Donaldson, a senior Sinn Féin member who was revealed as a British secret agent. Chalandon had befriended Donaldson while working as a journalist in Belfast. His 2008 novel My Traitor was also inspired by the Donaldson case.
Jean-Noël Pancrazi is a French author.
The Prix Jean-Freustié is a French literary prize created in 1987 by Christiane Teurlay-Freustié, second wife of writer and publisher Jean Freustie (1914–1983) to which it pays tribute, and his friends Nicole and Frédéric Vitoux as well as writer Bernard Frank. It rewards a French-speaking writer for a prose work: a novel, short story, autobiography, biography or essay. The prize is awarded annually.
Nicolas d’Estienne d’Orves is a French journalist and writer.
Brigitte Giraud is a French writer, author of novels and short stories. She was awarded the 2022 Prix Goncourt for her autobiographical novel Vivre vite.
Hédi Kaddour is a French poet and novelist.
Mohamed Mbougar Sarr is a Senegalese writer. Raised in Diourbel, Senegal and later studying in France, Sarr is the author of four novels as well as a number of award-winning short stories. He won the 2021 Prix Goncourt for his novel La plus secrète mémoire des hommes, becoming the first Sub-Saharan African to do so.
Camille Bourniquel was a French poet, novelist and painter.
The Most Secret Memory of Men is a 2021 novel by Senegalese writer Mohamed Mbougar Sarr. It was co-published on 19 August 2021 by the French independent publisher Éditions Philippe Rey (Paris) with the Senegalese publishing house Éditions Jimsaan (Dakar).
The Wizard of the Kremlin is the debut novel by Giuliano da Empoli published in April 2022 by Éditions Gallimard. It won the 2022 Grand prix du roman de l'Académie française and was a finalist for the Prix Goncourt, which was awarded to Vivre vite by Brigitte Giraud.