The novel, which evokes the violent beginnings of the colonization of Algeria, aroused the enthusiasm of the jury by its impressive power. The prize was awarded, Wednesday September 7 in the evening, in the premises of the newspaper.
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The tenth literary prize Le Monde, founded in 2013, was awarded on Wednesday September 7 to Mathieu Belezi to attack the Earth and the Sun (the tripod). Born in 1953, the writer, who now lives in Rome, extends in this magnetic novel, with an impressive rhythmic power, a series devoted to the colonization of Algeria, started with it was our land (Albin Michel , 2008).
This great novel of colonial illusion, which alternates the voices of two narrators, Séraphine, a woman distraught colonist, and an anonymous soldier telling the massacres, rapes, the looting of the French army, aroused the ‘Enthusiasm of the jury. Chaired by Jérôme Fenoglio, director of the world, he is made up of journalists working in the “world of books” (Jean Birnbaum, Denis Cosnard, Florent Georgesco, Raphaëlle Leyris and Nicolas Weill) and the four “corners” of the world: Emmanuel Davidenkoff (editorial development), Zineb Dryef (“M Le Monde magazine”), Gaëlle Dupont (Planet), Clara Georges (“L’Epoque”), Raphaëlle Rérolle (Grands Reporters), Solenn de Royer (Politics) and Alain Salles ( Debates and ideas). Attack the earth and the sun succeeds Jacqueline, Jacqueline, by Jean-Claude Grumberg (Seuil).
What was your reaction when you learned that you were going to receive the literary prize “Le Monde”?
It was a shock for me. I had been very happy to be in the selection. But I was sure I wouldn’t have it. It is my publisher, Frédéric Martin [the founder of the tripod], who called me: “I have a bad news to tell you.” He laughed and quickly reassured me: “You have the price of World. “I sat on a chair. I do not believe it. And, moreover, I always find it difficult to believe it. It is that Le Monde has always been a reference for me, which I maintained while keeping every week “Le Monde of books”, even if, by dint of moves, I lost a good part. I read other newspapers, of course, but I always start with Le Monde. It is such an anchored habit that I am enough that I type “L” on my phone so that the site appears!
“attacking the earth and the sun” is the fourth novel that you devote to the ‘Colonial Algeria, fourteen years after “It was our land”. How, at the time, had you chosen to write on this subject?
There was first a fact. If many novels have been written around the war of decolonization, there is practically nothing about colonization itself. I started to do research, and I quickly realized that this crazy, disproportionate, ignoble story offered me what I unconsciously was looking for: a literary territory. It allowed me to experiment with a style, to organize a flow by eliminating the points, by orchestrating a scansion, a particular musicality … I was immediately carried away by my discovery.
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