Posted on November 4, 2021 at 10:00 AM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek
Another top literary prize has announced a milestone winner.
Senegalese novelist Mohamed Mbougar Sarr was revealed as the 2021 winner of the Prix Goncourt, France’s oldest and most prestigious literary prize.
Mbougar Sarr is the first writer from sub-Saharan Africa to receive the honor, reports the Guardian.
His novel La plus secrète mémoire des hommes (The Most Secret Memory of Men) recalls a real-life incident in which the first African writer to win a different literary prize — the Prix Renaudot — was accused of plagiarism and (successfully) fled from the spotlight.
The Guardian notes that unlike other top literary prizes, the Prix Goncourt offers a tiny purse — just €10 (not quite $12).
It does, however, boost book sales enormously; last year’s winner, Hervé Le Tellier, sold more than a million books.
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Categories: Today in Books