The author of "The Event" was elected by the subscribers of the magazine, against other successful authors such as Amélie Nothomb, Giuliano Da Empoli ("The Mage of the Kremlin") or Guillaume Musso.
"This prize has great value for me because it is awarded by the entire book chain," she said in a pre-recorded message, broadcast during the ceremony at the Odeon theater.
To ensure the success of the books, "I know that there is all this power, this community around me," she said.
Annie Ernaux was awarded the 2022 Nobel Prize for "the courage and clinical acuity with which she discovers the roots, distances and collective constraints of personal memory".
In total, during this fourth edition, 16 trophies were awarded.
The publisher of the year award went to Pierre Fourniaud, a former bookseller who founded an independent publishing house, La Manufacture de livres, in 2008.
The trophy for the small publishing house of the year went to Mr. Toussaint Louverture. This Bordeaux publisher has secured an unexpected success in 2022 with "Blackwater", a six-volume saga by American Michael McDowell, published in 1983 and never translated into French until then.
Among other awards, the digital innovation trophy was awarded to the manufacturer of "storytellers" Bookinou and that of international success to L'Herne editions for an unpublished Simone de Beauvoir translated into nearly 40 languages, "The Inseparables".
The jury's "favorite" was the internet version of "Lieux", unpublished by Georges Perec, produced by Editions du Seuil.
At the opening of the ceremony, the Minister of Culture Rima Abdul Malak hailed in the edition "a cutting-edge profession, a profession of passion, meaning, light" and "the vitality of the sector", with book sales "up 7% compared to 2019".
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© 2023 AFP