Books | The former film director won France’s biggest literary award

French the highest literary award, the Goncourt, has been awarded to a former film director For Jean-Baptiste Andrea from the novel Veiller sur ellesays news agency AFP.

Two of Andrea’s, 52, works have also been very successful in the English-speaking world, Des Diables et des Saints (In English Devils and Saints) (2021) and One hundred million d’années et un jour (In English A Hundred Million Years and a Day) (2019).

Andrea’s latest 600-page epic tells the story of the short sculptor Michelangelo “Mimo” Vitaliani, who lives the last moments of his life and watches over his masterpiece.

The work tells the story of several decades of 20th century Italy. It includes the dark years of the rise of fascism, when the young and poor Mimo falls in love with the daughter of a prestigious family.

The work was published by the small L’Iconoclaste publishing house.

Andrea’s the road to becoming a writer has been unconventional. He started in the film industry as a screenwriter and director. His films include comedy Villains of misfortune (Big Nothing, 2006), which starred Friendsstar of the series David Schwimmer.

Andrea started as a writer relatively late, at the age of 40, when her first book was published in 2017. Veiller sur elle is his fourth novel.

“I wanted to write something bigger than what I had written before, to leave behind all the limits that I had originally set for myself in 20 years of cinema, but which, paradoxically, I had also set for my first three novels,” he told France Inter radio in late October.

“It’s a tribute to Italy, the land of my ancestors,” he added.

Centenary as per tradition, the Goncourt winner will be revealed at lunchtime at the Drouant restaurant in central Paris. The award was announced on Tuesday.

In addition to the fact that the award brings appreciation to the book, it also guarantees good sales. Over the past 20 years, the winning work has sold an average of 400,000 copies.