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The young Canadian writer, already a winner of the December Prize, received the prestigious award for his novel Our joy remains Although this book was controversial because it used the services of a ‘sensitive reader’.
How can controversy advance a narrative? The Medicis Prize jury crowned Canadian writer Kevin Lambert (31 years old) for his novel “ Our joy remains Published by Le Nouvel Attila. He received 6 votes compared to 4 for Salma Momani Goodbye Tangier (Gracite). He is undoubtedly one of the youngest winners of this great fall award. He also claimed the Prix Décembre, and was first choice at Goncourt.
The book features Celine Wachowski, a famous architect with contracts all over the world as well as her own Netflix series. But controversy arises over his new location. Accused of promoting gentrification and expelling the poor from Montreal, his business methods were roundly condemned. She is fired from her own company, and begins a long journey through the desert that prompts her to contemplate feelings of guilt.
The uniqueness of this novel is that it was previously published in Canada in September 2022 and was republished in France by New Attila for this literary season.
It was believed that the controversy that followed the publication of the novel would stop it. Quite the opposite happened. Factual reminder. In September, Kevin Lambert’s publisher revealed that his author had used the services of a Haitian-Canadian “sensitive reader” to check the credibility of a Haitian character. Sensitive readers are a type of publishing consultant responsible for identifying and correcting sexist, racist, or homophobic remarks in a manuscript that may have escaped the author’s attention. This is a common practice in North America, but little use in France. Nicolas Mathieu, winner of the 2018 Goncourt Prize, reacted strongly on Instagram, calling on writers to… “Work”, “Taking their own risks”, “Without supervision or police” By targeting Kevin Lambert, even if Nicolas Mathieu toned down his comments after the fact. In an interview with Figaro , Then Kevin Lambert replied: “Nicolas Mathieu has the right to disagree with this process. For my part, I do not believe in universal laws or absolutes in art. In the novel, we work with sensitive material, in motion, full of contradictions, we are interested in the specific more than the general. We can benefit from specialized reading. […] After this post, we chatted via Instagram with Nicolas Mathieu. “I think we each respect each other’s approach.” Therefore, the controversy did not prevent Kevin Lambert from winning multiple awards.
The Medici went for the article to Laure Murat Proust, a family novel (Robert Lafont), whose title appears in the Goncourt list. The Medici Prize for Foreign Fiction was awarded to two winners: Han Kang, The impossible goodbyeTranslated from Korean (South Korea) by Kyungran Choi, Pierre Bissio (Grasset), and Portuguese by Lydia Jorge for misery (Métailié Translated by Elizabeth Monteiro Rodriguez).
Next week, students at Interallié and Goncourt high schools will be there to choose the winner. ATTENTION: Kevin Lambert is still on track for Goncourt High School students…
