Émilienne Malfatto, winner of the Prix Goncourt du Premier Roman 2021

Audio 29:00

Writer Émilienne Malfatto in studio at RFI (June 2021).

© Catherine Fruchon-Toussaint / RFI

By: Catherine Fruchon-Toussaint

32 mins

Born in 1989, Émilienne Malfatto studied in France and Colombia.

A graduate of the Sciences Po Paris School of Journalism, she worked as a freelance journalist and photographer in France, Cyprus, and then Iraq.

Rewarded several times for her reports and photographs, she is also a writer and she published "

Que sur toi laments the Tiger"

 which was distinguished by the Prix Goncourt for the first novel and the Prix Hors-Concours des Lycéens in 2021.

Publicity

May the Tiger lament over you © Emilienne Malfatto / Elyzad

"In today's rural Iraq, on the banks of the Tigris, a young girl crosses the absolute prohibition: outside marriage, a romantic relationship, like a surge of life. The boy dies under the bombs, the young girl is pregnant: her fate is sealed As the implacable machinery sets in motion, the members of the family unfold in a circle of silent shadows under the watchful eye of Gilgamesh, a Mesopotamian hero who bears the memory of the country and of men.

Inspired by the complex realities of Iraq, which she knows well, Émilienne Malfatto subtly takes us into a closed society, ruled by male authority and the code of honor.

A dazzling first novel, with the intensity of an ancient tragedy. "

(Presentation of

Elyzad editions

)

FOR FURTHER

Émilienne Malfatto takes part in the “

Women at Exposure

” event which runs until August 8, 2021 in Houlgate.

She simultaneously publishes a major report in Colombia with

Les Arènes editions.

The Serpents will come for you © Les Arènes

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