Rennes (AFP)
The Ouest-France Étonnants Voyageurs prize was awarded Sunday in Saint-Malo to Jean-Baptiste Andrea for "Des diables et des saints" (Éditions l'Iconoclaste), a novel "on orphan childhood and love on the run" , announced the organizers.
Aged 50, Jean-Baptiste Andrea was first a director-screenwriter before embarking on writing.
He published "My Queen", the first novel which received several awards in 2017, including the High School Student's Femina, and "One Hundred Million Years and One Day" published in 2019.
"Des diables et des saints" already won the RTL-Lire 2021 Prize in March.
The Ouest-France / Étonnants Voyageurs prize, endowed this year with 2,000 euros, is awarded each year by a jury of ten young readers aged 15 to 20 years after a first selection by an adult jury, including Carole Martinez, Jean Rouaud and Sorj Chalandon.
Previous winners of the Ouest-France / Étonnants Voyageurs prize include Alain Mabanckou for "Broken Glass" in 2005 or Catherine Poulain for "Le Grand Marin" in 2016. During the last edition of the festival in 2019, the prize was awarded to Anaïs Llobet for "Men the color of the sky".
Tuesday, the Joseph Kessel prize of the festival, which rewards an author in the spirit of the great French writer, was awarded to Jean Rolin for "Le Pont de Bezons" (POL editions).
© 2021 AFP