Who is Mohamed Mbougar Sarr, winner of Goncourt 2021?

Awarded for his novel

, Mohamed Mbougar Sarr entered in more than one way in the history of the Prix Goncourt this Wednesday.

The Senegalese author is the first author from sub-Saharan Africa to be sacred.

At only 31 years old, he is also the youngest winner of the prestigious literary prize since Patrick Grainville, awarded at the age of 29 in 1976.

“There is no age in literature.

You can arrive very young, or at 67, at 30, at 70 and yet be very old, ”he told the media ready to collect his first reaction at midday at the Drouant restaurant in Paris.

"Let's hope that Goncourt will not cut off his desire to continue"

"With this young author, we returned to the fundamentals of the Goncourt will," said Philippe Claudel, member of the jury.

Hopefully the Goncourt will not cut off his desire to continue.

There is little risk that this will happen as he has been passionate about literature since childhood.

Born in 1990 in Diourbel (Senegal), Mohamed Mbougar Sarr, the son of a doctor, quickly turned out to be a good student and a great reader.

At the time of higher studies, he joined a literary preparatory class in Compiègne (Oise), then the prestigious School of Higher Studies in Social Sciences.

There he started a thesis on Léopold Sedar Senghor, the great voice of African literature and champion of "negritude" and has not finished it.

“I started to write a lot at that time, and fiction won out,” he explains.

"Being an African writer published in France can be complicated"

His first novel,

, was published by Présence africaine when he was only 24 years old. His second,

, followed three years later. Philippe Rey, publisher with recognized expertise in French-language literature, convinced him to join him for the third and fourth,

, in 2018, and

, which earned him the consecration this fall. .

“I was very lucky to have been supported: this is not the case for all African writers.

Nor of all writers at all!

I am well aware that being an African writer published in France can be complicated, as for all those who come from a margin, explained in September to AFP, Mohamed Mbougar Sarr, who lives today in Beauvais (Oise) .

But that is about to change.

That African literature remains largely to be known, it is also a chance for her.

"

Books

We read the Goncourt attributed to Mohamed Mbougar Sarr

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