We could not but echo those news and offer our costumer the chance to have access to those books in their original language, as well as also making them available to them in their most recent Catalan and Spanish translations.
Firstly, we would like to highlight the award of the Man Booker International prize, which is given to the best author and translator to English language to the novel Frère d’âme (At Night All Blood is Black) by David Diop. The book has been a bestseller in France where it has won the Goncourt des Lycéens prize. Diop is the first French writer who wins the Man Booker International prize, a prize he shares with his translator Anna Moschovakis. Other winners in previous editions were the South-Korean writer Han Kang and the Nobel prize winner the Polish Olga Tokarzuk.
Secondly, we congratulate Emmanuel Carrère for having been awarded the Princess of Asturias in literature prize 2021 for his literary career. In his last book, Yoga he narrates the depression that led the author to be diagnosed with bipolar disorder and to be hospitalised for four months. It is also a book about couple issues, about Islamic terrorism, the drama of refugees as well as a novel in which yoga and meditation, which the authors practices since he was eight, take the centre stage. The author, who is known for creating deep characters, has written some very well-known books such as L’adversaire or Le royaume.
Thirdly, we would like to mention the Premi Llibreter d’altres literatures, an award organized and given by the guild of bookseller of Catalonia and which is given by the bookshops of Catalonia. This year the award has been given to Leïla Slimani for Le pays des autres. The fact that the three finalist books were written in French shows the interest of the Catalan readers in the francophone literature.
This list of finalists consist of the winner novel, Le pays des autres by the French-Moroccan Leïla Slimani, an author who won the prestigious Goncourt prize for her novel Chanson douce. The book lays on the table the difficult relationship of a French woman and a Moroccan man due to traditions and cultural differences. Then we have, Le bal des folles by Victoria Mas, a historical novel about the psychiatric experiments conducted to women in late nineteenth century Paris which is also tribute to female freedom. Lastly, there is the Les hériteurs de la mine by the Canadian from the French speaking region of Quebec Jocelyne Saucier, it is the story of a poor family with 21 children, they live near an abandoned mine where the father believes they will be able to find zinc until one day an accident causes a great shock.
Finally, and focusing on teenagers and children, the French writer Jean-Claude Mourlevat has been awarded the Astrid Lindgren 2021 prize, the equivalent of the Nobel prize in literature but for younger readers. He is the first French who wins this prestigious prize which had been previously won by the English writer Philip Pullman in 2005. The work of Mourlevat has become a reference and it is included in many school programmes. He has penned other books like La balade de Cornebique, Le chagrin du roi mort or Jefferson.
