Jean-Pierre Montal, 91st Prix des Deux Magots
Jean-Pierre Montal, winner of the 91st Prix des Deux Magots for La Face nord (Séguier)
The jury for the Prix des Deux Magots, chaired by Étienne de Montety, met today at the Café des Deux Magots to select the winner from the four finalists for the 91st edition.
With 5 votes against 4 for Joël Egloff’s Ces féroces soldats, it chose Jean-Pierre Montal for his novel La Face nordpublished by Séguier.
In keeping with tradition, the €7,700 prize is presented by Catherine Mathivat, whose family has owned Les Deux Magots for four generations. Jean-Pierre Montal succeeds Guy Boley, winner in 2023 for his book À ma soeur et unique (Grasset).
A man meets a woman outside a screening of Leo McCarey’s masterpiece Elle et lui. They begin to discuss their passion for the film. It’s the start of an obvious and intense love affair. But she’s seventy-two and he’s forty-eight. Is it possible to ignore such a gap? Is it possible to start all over again?
Born in 1971, Jean-Pierre Montal is a writer and editor. His previous novel, Leur chamade (Prix Jean-René Huguenin 2023), was also published by Séguier.
Étienne de Montety, Jury President: “After a very close vote, the jury awarded Jean-Pierre Montal the prize for his book La Face nord (The North Face). The book exudes a special charm, revolving around an era, a neighborhood and an unexpected love affair born of a shared passion for a film. The jury is pleased to distinguish, in this rich literary season, a writer who has been ploughing his furrow for several years without yet having received the recognition he deserves”.
The jury for the Prix des Deux Magots is made up of the following personalities:
Étienne de Montety, director of Le Figaro Littéraire and writer, jury chairman
Laurence Caracalla, journalist
Nicolas Carreau, journalist, columnist and author
Jean Chalon, journalist and writer
Jean-Luc Coatalem, journalist and writer
Pauline Dreyfus, writer
Clara Dupont-Monod, publisher and writer
Jessica Nelson, writer and co-founder of Éditions des Saint Pères
Marianne Payot, journalist
Prix des Deux Magots, 91 years of freedom of spirit
Created in 1933 as a reaction to the Prix Goncourt, deemed too academic, the Prix des Deux Magots is one of France’s oldest literary awards. In the ninety-one years of its existence, the Prix has rewarded the works of such famous authors as Raymond Queneau (for his first novel Le Chiendent), Antoine Blondin, Albert Simonin, Pauline Réage, Sébastien Japrisot, Christian Bobin and Jérôme Garçin… True to its vocation as a discoverer, it has distinguished and revealed the work of such illustrious authors as Marc Dugain, Serge Joncour and, more recently, Pierre Adrian.
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