The novelist succeeds Gaspard Koenig, author of Humus, crowned in 2023.
Like every year, the jury for the Interallié prize, chaired by academician Jean-Marie Rouart, meets at the restaurant Chez Lasserre in the VIIIe district of Paris, to designate the winner of its prestigious literary award. Who succeeded Gaspard Koenig, author of Humus (Observatory editions)? There were only four novelists left in the running: major reporter in the Middle East for Le Figaro with Badjens (Threshold) ; with Heart (Albin Michel); Olivier Norek, for Winter Warriors (Michel Lafon) and Abel Quentin, Hut (Observatory editions).
The jury nominated Thibault de Montaigu for his very good, moving autobiographical novel, structured around the figure of his dandy father and his great-grandfather who died in 1914 in a cavalry charge.
Father’s stories
It is a novel with autobiographical overtones which has been noticed in this literary season. Thibault de Montaigu begins his story when his father, octogenarian, ruined and blind, lives, in a residence for the elderly, in a studio rented to him by his sons. In Astrid de Larminat underlined this homage paid to the father, a very beautiful text of admiration. “GraceThibault de Montaigu’s previous book, recounted the story of one of his uncles who became a Franciscan after having been a great debauchee. Heart revolves around two other figures from his family. In the foreground, his father, Emmanuel de Montaigu. A flamboyant man, handsome to die for and brilliant, absolutely casual, a charming prince for whom every day was an adventure into which he threw himself with greed and sovereign carelessness – the opposite of his son who worries everything. »
Thibault de Montaigu was also on the lists of the biggest fall prizes. By winning the Interallié, he inscribed his name on a prestigious list, with, among others, André Malraux (first winner in 1930, with The Royal Way), Paul Nizan, Jean Dutourd, Paul Guimard, Antoine Blondin, René Fallet, Kléber Haedens, Pierre Schoendoerffer, Sébastien Japrisot, Philippe Labro, Dominique Bona and all the jurors of this prize.
The jury for the Interallié prize is made up of Jean-Marie Rouart (president), Stéphane Denis, Gilles Martin-Chauffier, Eric Neuhoff, Christophe Ono-dit-Biot, Jean-Christophe Rufin, Jean-René Van der Plaesten and Florian Zeller. It has the particularity of adding to the jury the winner of the previous edition, Gaspard Koenig, this year.
