Spanish civil war novel wins France’s Goncourt book prize

Former psychiatrist Lydie Salvaire has won France’s top literary prize, the Goncourt, with Pas pleurer (Don’t Cry) a novel that mixes her mother’s account of the Spanish civil war with that of right-wing writer Georges Bernanos.

Goncort prize-winner Lydie Salvayre Editions du Seuil

Salvaire beat the favourites, Algerian first-time novelist Kamel Daoud’s Meursault contre-enquête (Meursault, the counter-inquiry) and best-selling author David Foenkinos’s Charlotte, with six of the nine votes of the Académie Goncourt, which awards the prize.

Foenkinos won the Renaudot, also announced on Wednesday, with Charlotte, a tribute to a young artist, Charlotte Salomon, who was killed at Auschwitz in 1943.

Salvaire, 66, the daughter of Spanish Republican refugees, learnt French at school and from books, her first language being Spanish.

Her book records the civil-war experiences of her mother, Montse, a whole-hearted supporter of the libertarian revolution in Catalonia at the age of 15.

But it mixes her account over an anisette 75 years after the events in a mixture of French and Spanish with passages in the voice of Bernanos, a famous author and Catholic right-winger who was nevertheless revolted by the excesses of General Francisco Franco’s fascists.

Salvaire is the author of 21 books, some adapted for the stage, and has been translated into over 20 languages.

The Prix Goncourt is worth just 10 euros in prize money but is a literary jackpot because of its effect on sales.

Sales of last year’s winner Au revoir là-haut by Pierre Lemaitre soared from 30,000 to 620,000, according to publishers Albin Michel.