Paris (AFP)

A crazy novel with an intriguing title, a poignant tale on forced marriage, a dive into a family history and a fresco on Morocco compete for the Goncourt prize, awarded Monday in a new format, 48 hours after the reopening of bookstores.

The health crisis and the closure of restaurants, so in Drouant, in the Opera district in Paris, forced the jury to fall back on a videoconference and to do without deliberations at the table.

The name of the winner will be announced at 12:30 p.m. for the most prestigious prize in French literature.

Then, at 12.50 p.m., it will be followed by another prize, the Renaudot, which rewards a novel as well as an essay.

For the literary journalists interviewed by the specialized monthly Livres Hebdo, including that of AFP, it is Hervé Le Tellier who holds the cord for the Goncourt, with "L'Anomalie".

In addition to being published by Gallimard, an often awarded publishing house, this book built like a clever construction game and breathtaking suspense, has for him to have already convinced a large audience.

- Wind of novelty?

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The Académie Goncourt could however prefer "Les Impatientes" (editions Emmanuelle Colas) by Cameroonian Djaïli Amadou Amal, who has already defied all forecasts by arriving in the last selection.

If it rewarded this poignant story on the oppression of women forcibly married, the Goncourt would breathe new life into the prize list by dedicating an author from sub-Saharan Africa, hitherto unknown to the circles of the Parisian edition.

The other two finalist novels keep all their chances: "Thésée, sa vie nouvelle" by Camille de Toledo (Verdier editions), vast reflection on the weight of the family heritage, and "The Historiographer of the kingdom" by Maël Renouard (Grasset ), a brilliant exercise in style that describes from the inside the Moroccan monarchy in the last century.

On Saturday, the New York Times denounced in an investigation the murky game of French literary juries, where, according to the daily, literary quality passes after flagrant conflicts of interest and intrigues that are difficult to read for the general public.

The Goncourt is less directly targeted than the Renaudot.

These two prizes, awarded by volunteer juries, bring in almost nothing to a writer: 10 euros for the first, 0 euros for the second.

But they constitute crucial economic issues for authors and publishers, because tens or even hundreds of thousands of readers trust these labels.

- Renewed jury -

Aware of this issue, the two prices preferred to wait for the reopening of bookstores, which took place on Saturday after a month of closure for health reasons.

"In this new school year, there were 500 writers who published texts (...) We are four finalists, so we can see that there were a lot of injuries", noted Friday one of the four authors in running, Hervé Le Tellier, on France Culture.

In addition to unprecedented conditions, the Goncourt is distinguished this year by a partly renewed jury.

The journalist Bernard Pivot left the presidency of the Academy at the end of 2019, and the novelist Virginie Despentes resigned in early 2020. The essayist Pascal Bruckner and the novelist Camille Laurens have joined the jury now chaired by the writer Didier Decoin.

At Renaudot, the journalist and writer Jérôme Garcin resigned in March with the intention of creating a renewal and promoting the presence of women on the jury.

He has not yet found a successor.

In 2019, the Goncourt was won by Jean-Paul Dubois, with "All men do not live in the world the same way".

Le Renaudot had chosen Sylvain Tesson's novel "La Panthère des neiges", and Eric Neuhoff's essay "(Very) dear French cinema".

© 2020 AFP