"Houris" by Kamel Daoud: Finally, a Worthy Goncourt Prize
After several disappointing years, the Goncourt Prize finally honors a novel that truly deserves the recognition. The jury has given us a real gift by shining a light on a major author of our generation, still too little known to the general public. With Houris, Kamel Daoud delivers an engaged novel, teeming with symbols and hidden meanings, a work that can be read on multiple levels. Admittedly, the first pages are written in a style that is a bit too baroque for my taste, but very quickly, ...
Irish region known for the beauty of its landscapes, Connemara is also the title of the latest novel by Nicolas Mathieu who, in 2018, won the Goncourt prize for And Their Children After Them. The choice of the title of his final text refers to a song by Michel Sardou: Les Lacs de Connemara. A sort of leitmotif, this 1980s hit accompanies the characters of the novel in their daily struggles; it symbolizes an emotional bond with a familiar place (in this case, a small town in the eastern part o...
Anéantir – to reduce to nothing or plunge into a state of utter despair. It was not without reason that Michel Houellebecq chose this infinitive for the French title of his eighth novel; to revisit the fundamental law of nature – the progressive and inevitable degradation of the body that turns every living being to dust; to draw attention to the greatest taboo of the West - death - and thus plunge its readers into despair. We are indeed devastated by the omnipresence of themes related to the...
