Prix Goncourt - Jonathan Littell - Report (original) (raw)
Advertisement
You have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.
American Writer Is Awarded Goncourt
Jonathan Littell, an American author who writes in French and lives in Barcelona, has won France’s most prestigious literary prize.Credit...Benjamin Loyseau
- Nov. 7, 2006
PARIS, Nov. 6 — Jonathan Littell, a New York-born writer whose French-language novel about a murderous and degenerate SS officer has been the sensation of the French publishing season, on Monday became the first American to win France’s most prestigious literary award, the Prix Goncourt.
The 903-page book, “Les Bienveillantes,” was the strong favorite for the century-old prize that goes to novels written in French. Previous winners include Marcel Proust, André Malraux, Simone de Beauvoir and Marguerite Duras; non-French citizens including Tahar Ben Jelloun, Amin Maalouf and Andreï Makine have also won the Goncourt.
“Les Bienveillantes,” or “The Kindly Ones,” has been acquired by HarperCollins for publication in the United States and has already been sold for translation into German, Spanish, Hebrew and several other languages. Last month the book, which has so far sold some 250,000 copies in France, won the Académie Française’s annual fiction prize.
Mr. Littell, 39, who has tried to escape the circus atmosphere surrounding his sudden celebrity, even refusing to appear on television to promote his novel, recently moved to Barcelona and did not come to Paris for today’s announcement.
“He hopes his absence will not be misunderstood or, even less, be interpreted as disdain for the jury,” his French publisher, Antoine Gallimard, told reporters here. “He has no need for publicity, both out of modesty and because he believes that literature is not part of show business, that what’s important is the book.”
Still, part of the novelty of “Les Bienveillantes” is that it was written in French by an American, although one who grew up in France after his father, Robert Littell, a journalist-turned-thriller writer, moved the family here in the 1970s.
Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.
Thank you for your patience while we verify access.
Already a subscriber? Log in.
Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Advertisement