The prestigious French Prize not only achieved lucrative sales for their novels and books, but also launched their fame on the horizons of literature not only at the local level but also internationally.
Each of these writers keeps memories of their first award and the feelings they had in those happy moments in their lives.
Amin Maalouf says: “It was November 8, 1993, and I was with my publisher on Rue Saint-Pierre. I had arrived very early at the office of the owner of the house, Jean-Claude Vasquily, where I was joined, one by one, by the people in charge of the house, and then by some of its principal authors. …I remember Hector Bianchiotti so elegantly dressed that the solemnity of the moment suddenly became palpable, adding to my fear. The tradition in the Maison de Grasse was to meet and listen to the Goncourt Awards announcement from an old transistor radio in a hoarse voice, which we kept at his keyboard for this one occasion ‘It should bring us good luck.’ As one o’clock approached, thirty people gathered in the house. When François Norrissier announced the name of the winner in the city of Derwant, my feelings were so strong that I could hardly hear the name he uttered. The small crowd, and people started rushing around to kiss me, I realized then that the winner was me for my novel – Tanios Rock – 1993.
Speaking about his first win of this award, Moroccan writer Tahar Benjelloun says: “I burst into tears like a child who had just passed an exam. Moreover, when I called my illiterate mother, who does not know all these editorial games, I told her: Mom, you passed. And in the evening, I participated in Bernard Bévaux’s program that talks to writers. I also received a telegram from the King of Morocco and responded kindly to it without protocol. I was the first Moroccan to receive this prestigious award. A short time later, French President François Mitterrand received me at the Elysee Palace at the meeting of the Supreme Council of Francophonie of which I was a member. in it”.
As for the Russian writer Andrei Makin, who settled in Paris and started writing in French, he says: I traveled to France for six months, and I never met my readers. I discovered France that reads, which my previous novels did not allow me to do: teachers, librarians, enthusiastic readers. A community that reads books and talks about them with enthusiasm. I really appreciate the readers.”
“I decided to publish my novel in the spring,” Paul Constant says of the victory of his novel “Trust of the Evidence of Trust.” But in September, I found myself on the Goncourt Prize list, and even in the final. On the day of the announcement, I was returning from Beirut and asked the taxi driver to turn on the radio. “And that’s when I heard my name. I had to go to the Café de Fleurs where the winners were greeted. I was dressed for travel.”
The feelings of winning are different, but there is a common denominator between all writers and writers, and most of them are tears that fill their eyes, which are undoubtedly tears of joy, and a lack of control over feelings and feelings. their friends.
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