Philippe Jaenada Wins Prix Goncourt for True-Crime Novel
The author secured France's top literary prize for his investigation into a 1949 Parisian murder, while the ceremony was overshadowed by an artificial intelligence controversy.
French author Philippe Jaenada was announced as the winner of the Prix Goncourt, France's most prestigious literary prize, for his true-crime novel L’Inconnue du quai de Javel. The announcement was made on Tuesday afternoon in Paris.
Jaenada's 530-page book investigates the unsolved 1949 cold case of Louise Cansot, a 29-year-old Breton woman who was widely known as 'the woman with a hundred portraits' due to her popularity as an artist's model in Montparnasse. Cansot was found dead on September 7, 1949, and police were never able to identify her killer.
The original 300-page police report categorized Cansot as a woman of 'ill repute,' while contemporary newspaper reports speculated that she might have been a sex worker or a drug addict. Jaenada's novel seeks to correct the record of the original investigation by offering a potential suspect while also providing an empathetic portrait of the victim.
The newspaper Le Monde praised the book for its humor and 'touch of grumpy tenderness,' noting that the author 'spares no effort in trying to understand his heroine.' To craft his narrative, Jaenada drew inspiration by reading and rereading 74 out of the 75 novels in George Simenon’s Inspector Maigret series.
Having previously been shortlisted four times, Jaenada finally triumphed with the thirteenth novel of his career. Since 2013, deep dives into historical news stories have become the trademark style of the Île-de-France-born writer.
Despite Jaenada's victory, this year's edition of the Prix Goncourt was significantly overshadowed by a major controversy. Another book initially on the longlist, C’était ça ou mourir (It Was That or Die) by Canadian-Haitian author Thélyson Orélien, faced allegations that it was written almost entirely using artificial intelligence.
Following an investigation, the Paris-based literary organization Académie Goncourt removed Orélien’s book from its longlist, and his Canadian publisher Boréal severed business ties with him. Orélien has consistently denied using artificial intelligence to write his novel.