The Goncourt Prize Awarded to Laurent Mauvignier for "La maison vide"

Laurent Mauvignier was awarded the Goncourt Prize on Tuesday for his novel "La maison vide" (Minuit), a sprawling family saga of 750 pages described as a "fundamental" work by the jury of France's most prestigious literary award.

"I feel joy; this is a huge recognition because it is a book that comes from childhood and spans several generations," said the 58-year-old author upon arriving at Drouant, a famous restaurant near the Paris Opera, where the ten jurors of the Goncourt Academy awaited him.

Securing the prize in the first round with six votes, Mauvignier outpaced Belgian author Caroline Lamarche, who received four votes for "Le bel obscur" (Seuil), and left two other finalists behind: Emmanuel Carrère with "Kolkhoze" (P.O.L) and Nathacha Appanah with "La nuit au coeur" (Gallimard).

The Goncourt is the first major literary prize of the autumn awarded to Laurent Mauvignier, who has already published around twenty books, most of them with the Minuit publishing house.

"This is a salute to an author who has a significant body of work behind him and who this year has presented us with not just a collection, but a truly fundamental novel," commented Philippe Claudel, the president of the Goncourt Academy, in front of the press. He, along with the other jury members, wore a badge in support of Franco-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal, who is imprisoned in Algeria.

In 2024, the prize was awarded to "Houris" (Gallimard) by Franco-Algerian Kamel Daoud.

Laurent Mauvignier, aged 58, was born in Touraine into a working-class family. After studying Fine Arts in Tours, he turned to literature. His notable works include "Loin d’eux," his debut novel in 1999, "Des hommes" about memories of the Algerian War, and "Histoires de la nuit."

"La maison vide" is a 750-page narrative with expansive sentences that tells the story of generations since the early 20th century in a house in La Bassée, an imaginary village in Touraine resembling the small town of Descartes where the author grew up.

"I believe my family story resembles that of millions of French people, with its shadowy areas and its more glorious parts," Mauvignier explained to AFP. "After two or three generations, memories fade. Once that thread is cut, it's totally over."

Women play a central role in the narrative as "they are the ones who hold the household together, as was often the case in the countryside and during wartime."

The author focuses particularly on Marie-Ernestine, who as a young girl has a gift for the piano and falls in love with her teacher. However, her father forces her to marry Jules, an employee of the family sawmill, abandoning her dreams of moving to Paris to become a musician.

From this union, Marguerite, the novelist's grandmother, is born in 1913, shortly before Jules dies in the trenches of World War I.

Laurent Mauvignier seeks to understand why a "fortress of silence" surrounded Marguerite, whose face has been cut out or scratched from photos. He discovers that she experienced dishonor during the Occupation by consorting with German soldiers.

"La maison vide" has been one of the best-selling novels since the beginning of the literary season, much to the satisfaction of its publishing house linked to Madrigall, the Gallimard group.

Thanks to the red "Prix Goncourt" label on its cover, sales of "La maison vide" are expected to surge, as seen with recent laureates who have sometimes sold over 500,000 copies. This is a boon in a gloomy climate for publishing, with a 5.7% drop in sales volume in September compared to the same month in 2024, according to figures from Livres Hebdo.

Awarded simultaneously with the Goncourt, the Renaudot Prize went to Adélaïde de Clermont-Tonnerre for "Je voulais vivre." The Renaudot Essay Prize recognized Alfred de Montesquiou for "Le crépuscule des hommes" (Robert Laffont).