Finalist in the major autumn literary awards (Goncourt, Renaudot, Interallié), winner of the Prix Jean-Giono, the author of Winter Warriors (Michel Lafon) has just received another award, and remains in the running for the Goncourt des lycéens.
Editions Michel Lafon, headed by Elsa Lafon, will have to find room for the cover banner of Olivier Norek’s novel, Winter Warriors. Already winner of the Prix Jean Giono, the author, who was also shortlisted for the Prix Goncourt, Renaudot and Interallié, has just been crowned once again, this time by the Prix Renaudot des lycéens. He succeeds Lilia Hassaine, who was crowned last year with Panorama (Gallimard). He is also a potential winner of the Goncourt des lycéens, to be announced on November 28.
For the Renaudot des lycéens, Olivier Norek, a retired policeman, won ahead of the other four authors in the running, and not the least:
Gaël Faye for Jacaranda (Grasset), Benjamin de Laforcade, Berlin for them (Gallimard), Miguel Bonnefoy, The Jaguar’s Dream (Rivages), Antoine Choplin, Masao’s boat (Buchet Chastel).
Also to be read
Olivier Norek: “I’ve always used crime fiction as an alibi”.
Le Figaro had noticed Les Guerriers de l’hiver among the must-read novels of the new literary season. A story “astonishing and grippingin the words of Bruno Corty in our August 28 issue. Norek was used to writing thrillers. With this new novel, he took a step to the side by delving into history: “In Winter Warriorsthe author of Code 93, Dans la brume de Capelanstells the story of a little-known episode in the Second World War. The invasion of Finland by its Russian neighbor in November 1939. For Stalin, the stakes were high: not allowing the powerful German army to reach the gates of the Nordic countries. In his eyes, invading Finland, a small country that had only known independence since 1917, would be child’s play. The disproportion between the two armies in terms of numbers of men and equipment is laughable.” But the Russian army was to hit the nail on the head: Simo Häyhä, a small man but a hell of a marksman, defeating one of the world’s largest armies against a tiny country. As we pointed out when it was awarded the Prix Jean Giono, this novel is a tour de force that appeals both to readers – it’s a best-seller – and to the juries of the major literary prizes.
For this 2024 edition, more than 400 high school students from 16 schools in the Poitiers, Limoges, Bordeaux, Orléans-Tours and Nantes academies, as well as two foreign schools (Romania and Madagascar), read, discussed and exchanged ideas with their teachers to choose the novelist who will meet them in December in Loudun, in the Vienne region, the birthplace of Théophraste Renaudot.