The jury of the Carhaix City Novel Prize has chosen its three finalists. The award will be presented to the winner on Saturday, October 24, during the 37th edition of the Book Festival in Brittany.
Since 1999, on the occasion of the Festival of Books in Brittany, the City of Carhaix has awarded its Novel Prize, which honors a work published between April 1 of the previous year and March 31 of the current year.
The specificity of the prize is that the nominated authors must reside in one of the five Breton departments or have ties to the region.
The jury, composed of 12 members (elected officials or residents of the city of Carhaix, book professionals, and literature teachers from Carhaix high schools), met a few days ago.
After rich debates, three novels clearly stood out from the 17 selected titles. They are (in alphabetical order by author):
- La Colline, by Mathilde Beaussault (Le Seuil)
- Que l’espérance est violente, by Nathalie de Broc (Diabase)
- Ecume d’hiver, by Anne-Solange Muis (Phébus)
The Prize, worth 1500 euros, will be awarded on Saturday, October 24 in the afternoon (time to be specified) at the Glenmor Space, during the 37th edition of the Festival of Books in Brittany, at the same time as the Prize for the short story written in the Breton language.
The finalist novels
- La Colline, by Mathilde Beaussault (Le Seuil)
One winter day, in a neighborhood of Rennes, a newborn is discovered at the bottom of a garbage container. Alive.
A few floors up, a young girl is bleeding out.
Her name is Monroe, she is seventeen.
In this room where her mother has locked her up, Monroe relives the months spent on the hill, at her grandmother Madeleine's. Up there, the wind, labor, and silence shape the bodies. With this solitary old woman with healing hands, Monroe, pregnant, discovered an unexpected peace. And then everything collapsed.
A choral and visceral novel that blends brutality and grace,
by the winner of the Grand Prix for crime literature 2025, already a finalist for the City of Carhaix Novel Prize last year.
- Que l’espérance est violente, by Nathalie de Broc (Diabase)
Pierre and Blanche live in Brest. He is a young philosophy teacher; she, married early to a wealthy man, is bored. Their meeting is electrifying. From their passion, Minna is born at the beginning of the Second World War. Blanche is Jewish and wears the yellow star. Sought by the French gendarmerie of Landerneau, they are forced to flee Brittany for Paris, leaving behind Minna, entrusted to Pierre's nurse.
A well-known figure at the Festival of Books, where she was honorary president in 2011, Nathalie de Broc has gathered the confidences of a true story. She has written a novel of waiting and love. Her poignant emotion carries the vibrant hope of men and women who, tested by the whims of great History, do not give up, resist, and flourish through the strength of feelings.
- Ecume d’hiver, by Anne-Solange Muis (Phébus)
In the village of Miquelon, winter has erased everything and the horizon no longer exists. It is here that Michel and Jean were born, two brothers who live from traditional cod fishing. But one cold evening, Jean disappears. His fate will then seal the destiny of his son Yoann, forced to return to the island he left as a child. Confronted with a daily life where nature guides everything, this man will have to reconnect with the land that saw him born and, who knows, with his past.
Already a finalist last year with the acclaimed Une île pour elle, Anne-Solange Muis this time immerses the reader in the landscapes and legends of Saint-Pierre-and-Miquelon, this piece of France lost at the edge of the North Atlantic. She builds, with a language of infinite sobriety, the immense backdrop of a vibrant story of transmission.
Already a finalist last year with the acclaimed Une île pour elle, Anne-Solange Muis this time immerses the reader in the landscapes and legends of Saint-Pierre-and-Miquelon, this piece of France lost at the edge of the North Atlantic. She builds, with a language of infinite sobriety, the immense backdrop of a vibrant story of transmission.
Previous Winners of the Carhaix City Novel Prize
2025: Marie Vingtras, Les âmes féroces (éd. de l’Olivier)
2024: Dimitri Rouchon-Borie, Le Chien des étoiles (Le Tripode)
2023: Sylvie Le Bihan, Les Sacrifiés (Denoël)
2022: Louis Grall, Le nageur d’Aral (La Manufacture de livres)
2021: Christian Blanchard, Tu ne seras plus mon frère (Belfond)
2020: Philippe Gerin, Les voyages de Cosme K (Gaïa Éditions)
2019: Frank Darcel, Vilaine blessure (Le Temps Éditeur)
2018: Mérédith Le Dez, Le Cœur mendiant (La part commune)
2017: Marie Le Gall, Mon étrange sœur (Grasset)
2016: Daniel Cario, Les chemins creux de Saint-Fiacre (Presses de la Cité)
2015: Loïc Le Guillouzer, Cochinchine (Goater Éditions)
2014: Julia Kerninon, Buvard (Rouergue)
2013: Juhel Fabienne, Les oubliés de la lande (Rouergue)
2012: Claire Fourier, Les silences de la guerre (Points)
2011: Gaël Brunet, Tous les trois (Rouergue)
2010: Hervé Jaouen, Ceux de Ker-Askol (Presses de la Cité)
2009: Tanguy Viel, Paris Brest (Minuit)
2008: Françoise Moreau, Jamais de la vie (Diabase)
2007: Sylvain Coher, Fidéicommis (Naïve)
2006: Marie-Hélène Bahain, L’arbre au vent (Diabase)
2005: Arnaud Le Gouëfflec, Basile et Massue (Sixto Éditions)
2004: Cédric Morgan, Le bleu de la mer (Phébus)
2003: Marie Le Drian, Ça ne peut plus durer (Julliard)
2002: Soazig Aron, Le Non de Klara (Maurice Nadeau)
2001: Jacques Josse, Café Roussau (La Digitale)
2000: Bernard Garel, Mines flottantes (Ramsay)
1999: Yvon Inizan, Ailleurs exactement (HB Éditions)
Learn more: https://www.festivaldulivre-carhaix.bzh/fr/
