Suspense is growing around Kevin Lambert and his novel Let our joy remain, which was selected on Monday among the four finalists for the December prize while we will know this Tuesday if it is selected in the second Goncourt list.
Among the other finalists for the December prize are the novels Sad Tiger, by Neige Sinno (P. O. L), Proust, family novel, by Laure Murat (Robert Laffont), and Strange, by Geneviève Damas (Grasset). The prize, won last year by Lola Lafon for When you listen to this song (Stock), will be awarded on October 31 in Paris.
In addition to the Goncourt, the Quebec writer is notably in the running for the Médicis prize, the Goncourt des lycéens and the Blù – Jean-Marc Roberts prize for his third novel, published in Quebec last year by Héliotrope and this fall in the Hexagone, from the publisher Le Nouvel Attila. It is also one of 11 titles selected for the Page 111 Prize.
Let Our Joy Remain, which recounts the turmoil in which an internationally renowned architect finds herself accused of accelerating the gentrification of neighborhoods, has caused a lot of ink to flow over the months, and this, not only by accumulating the possibilities of winning a prestigious literary prize on the other side of the Atlantic. In Quebec, the novel was at the heart of a controversy involving François Legault last summer, the Prime Minister having earned harsh criticism from the author after having complimented him for his book. Then, at the beginning of September, Kevin Lambert was again at the center of a controversy after his selection at Goncourt, criticized this time by the French writer and Goncourt 2018 Nicolas Mathieu who criticized him for having used a sensitive reader in the process of rereading his novel.
Kevin Lambert also received last week the 2023 Best Thesis Prize, awarded by the University of Montreal to doctoral students who “have clearly stood out in their sector of study”. The writer was noted for his thesis which includes his novel Let our joy remain as well as the text Miss better: essay on fantasy in creation. Three other students also received the prize in their field of study: Jérémie Provost, in health sciences, Morgan Botrel, in natural and formal sciences, and Éliane Thouin, in social sciences. Winners win a $1,500 scholarship.
