Paris (AFP)

The jury of the Goncourt Prize unveiled Tuesday its first selection of 15 titles in the running for the most prestigious literary prize in the French-speaking world, which will be awarded on November 4th.

Yann Moix, presented as a potential laureate of Goncourt before the exhumation of ancient antisemitic texts and drawings, is not present on the list that hosts on the other hand the belgian novelist Amélie Nothomb.

The selection of Goncourt also includes two first-novelists: Abel Quentin and Anne Pauly who has just received the prize Envoyé par La Poste for "Before I forget" (Verdier), a tragicomic tale full of tenderness and empathy telling the story of his father's illness and death.

Three of the authors selected by academicians Goncourt (Santiago Amigorena, Nathacha Appanah and Jean-Luc Coatalem) also appear in the selection of Renaudot unveiled Monday evening.

Here is the list, in alphabetical order of authors, of the first selection of Goncourt:

- Santiago H. Amigorena, "The Inner Ghetto" (POL)

- Nathacha Appanah, "The sky over the roof" (Gallimard)

- Dominique Barbéris, "A Sunday in Ville-d'Avray" (Arléa)

- Jean-Luc Coatalem, "The part of the son" (Stock)

- Louis-Philippe Dalembert, "Mediterranean Wall" (Sabine Wespieser)

- Jean-Paul Dubois, "All men do not live the world in the same way" (L'Olivier)

- Hélène Gaudy, "A world without shore" (Actes Sud)

- Leonora Miano, "Empress Red" (Grasset)

- Hubert Mingarelli, "The Invisible Earth" (Buchet Chastel)

- Amélie Nothomb, "Thirsty" (Albin Michel)

- Anne Pauly, "Before I forget" (Verdier)

- Abel Quentin, "Sister" (The Observatory)

- Olivier Rolin, "Outside world" (Gallimard)

- Sébastien Spitzer, "The beating heart of the world" (Albin Michel)

- Karine Tuil, "The human things" (Gallimard)

This first selection also launches Goncourt high school students. The young jurors chose their laureate among the authors chosen by the academicians Goncourt, with the exception of Léonora Miano who already obtained this award in 2006.

The winner of Goncourt high school students will be known Thursday, November 14.

Last year the Goncourt prize was awarded to Nicolas Mathieu for "Their children after them" (Actes Sud) and the Goncourt high school students to David Diop for "Brother of soul" (Threshold).

© 2019 AFP