Looking for a last-minute gift? If so, our selection of literary prize winners and nominees is here to help!

L’Ordre du Jour by Eric Vuillard,  Prix Goncourt, éditions Actes Sud

Recommended by Adam
L’Ordre du jour is a text that captures two key moments in the rise of Nazism in Europe with concision, lucidity, and humor: the February 20, 1933 lunch during which the great German business barons (including Krupp, Opel, and Siemens) are invited to finance the Nazi Party campaign by Chancellor Adolf Hitler; and March 12, 1938–the day when Austria is annexed by Nazi Germany.
Eric Vuillard writes with both great attention to detail, and a taste for the absurd situations, mechanisms, maneuvers, and day-to-day compromises that tilted Europe towards barbarism.

L’Art de Perdre by Alice Zeniter, Prix Goncourt des Lycéens, Flammarion

Recommended by Miriam
L’Art de Perdre is a captivating saga told by the granddaughter of a “harki”–someone born in Algeria who gave up their citizenship to become French. Throughout this insightful novel, the reader follows the course of an Algerian family from 1930 to the present day as it navigates the obstacles of history and colonialism.

La Disparition de Joseph Menguele, by Olivier Guez, Prix Renaudot 2017, éditions Grasset

Recommended by Sandrine
La Disparition de Josef Mengele goes far beyond the standard retelling of how Nazis fled to South America. Olivier Guez focuses on the incredible story of a monster who denies any responsibility for his evil actions until he realizes at the beginning of Eichmann’s trial that he is next on the ‘list’.

Nos Richesses by Kaouther Adimi – Prix Renaudot des Lycéens, éditions du Seuil

Recommended by Adam
Nos Richesses describes the many lives of the great and sometimes forgotten publisher Edmond Charlot -the ‘Syliva Beach of Algiers’. He opened a bookstore called Les Vraies Richesses and spent a great deal of his life publishing new and under-appreciated authors. One of his first offerings to the world was the debut of none other than Albert Camus. The bookstore was open between 1930 and 1960. Moments of great political gravity float in the background of Nos Richesses, reminding the reader of the sheer drama of the era.
Kaouther Adimi-a young Algerian woman now living in Paris-synthesizes the private minutiae of Charlot with the history of the times in a surprisingly light almost breezy fashion, making this a fast, interesting, and engaging read.

La Serpe, by Philippe Jaenada, Prix Femina, editions Julliard

Recommended by Sandrine
One morning of 1941, Henri Girard, 23 years old, calls for help. During the night, his father, his aunt and their domestic have been savagely murder. He is the only survivor. But the circumstances of the slaughter will soon turn him into the main suspect: all the exit were closed, and no effraction were committed, none of the family jewels went missing, and the police found cash in drawers. More importantly, the murder weapon was a billhook that Henri had borrowed to the neighbors a couple of days earlier. After being innocented, Henri went into exil in South AmeriLca, and came back years later in France with the manuscript of a Le Salaire de la peur, which becomes an instant bestseller, and got adapted into a legendary movie by Henri-Georges Clouzot.
Jaenada excells in telling stories of famous murders — in which he appears as a detective pursuing false and right intuitions, mixing past and present, playing with the codes of autofiction and detective novel — and in keeping his readers on their noses.

Notre Vie dans les forêts, by Marie Darrieussecq, éditions P.O.L.

Recommended by Ines
The desire to humanize this ‘other’ within one’s self–this “half”, as Marie Darrieussecq calls it, is nothing more than the fictional representation of one’s conscience. In this brilliant futuristic analysis, Marie Darrieussecq gives us a captivating novel, graced with writing that is both alive and unsettling.
The author plunges the reader into a dystopic world where clones, drones, and disturbing new technologies tarnish a new automated society.
This frustrating universe is joined with an impressive monologue, in which the narrator, Viviane, discusses her anxieties with her “half”–which is in reality her clone that serves as a means of keeping her alive. She is annoyed and takes offense both at not being able to have a human relationship with this other, even though these two characters are in fact one; as well as the fact that one has a conscience and the other does not and cannot conceive of the world that surrounds it.
This blood-chilling masterpiece by Marie Darrieussecq asks the reader at what point will transhumanism defy human nature.”

Summer, by Monica Sabolo, éditions Albin Michel

Recommended by Miriam
Summer, 19 years old, daughter of a wealthy Swiss family, was last seen at a family gathering,  on the spectacular shore of the beautiful Lake Leman (Switzerland ). 25 years after her disappearance, her brother Benjamin is overwhelmed by memories of his sister. Summer haunts his nights, and unveils the secrets of a family plagued by silence and the preservation of bourgeois appearances. How can one live with ghosts?
Monica Sabolo has written a powerful, poetic, and bewildering novel that brings to mind the atmosphere of Modiano’s novels.