The most prestigious French literary prize is the prix Goncourt, and they've just announced the "1° sélection pour le prix Goncourt 2013".
Yes, the French being the French they apparently felt a need to outdo prizes like the Man Booker, with its longlist, shortlist, and winner, adding one more stage to the interminable-seeming process: the Goncourt has a long-longlist (the fifteen just-announced titles), to be followed by a longlist (1 October), a shortlist (29 October), and only then a winner (4 November).
It seems a reasonably interesting list. Among the authors on it with (other) books under review at the complete review are: Marie Darrieussecq, Sylvie Germain, Laurent Seksik, Chantal Thomas, and Jean-Philippe Toussaint. But I know entirely too little about the current crop to even hazard a guess where this is going. In any case, there doesn't seem to be a consensus stand-out title or author.
Yes, the French being the French they apparently felt a need to outdo prizes like the Man Booker, with its longlist, shortlist, and winner, adding one more stage to the interminable-seeming process: the Goncourt has a long-longlist (the fifteen just-announced titles), to be followed by a longlist (1 October), a shortlist (29 October), and only then a winner (4 November).
It seems a reasonably interesting list. Among the authors on it with (other) books under review at the complete review are: Marie Darrieussecq, Sylvie Germain, Laurent Seksik, Chantal Thomas, and Jean-Philippe Toussaint. But I know entirely too little about the current crop to even hazard a guess where this is going. In any case, there doesn't seem to be a consensus stand-out title or author.