By Figaro with AFP, Bertrand Guyard
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Étienne de Montety, president of the jury for the Deux Magots prize, and the novelist Guy Boley, 2023 recipient for To my only sister. Le Figaro/Bertrand Guyard
The novel dedicated to the lives of Elisabeth and Friedrich Nietzsche by the French writer was chosen by the jury in the first round by seven votes to five.
He has just joined the prestigious lineage of Antoine Blondin, Albert Simonin, Roland Topor, Geneviève Dormann and others Bernard Frank… Guy Boley won Monday September 25 the price of Deux Magots For To my only sister (Editions Gret), novel dedicated to Elisabeth, the sister of Friedrich Nietzsche. A few minutes after his victory Étienne de Montety, president of the jury, showed his satisfaction by declaring: “It is deserved!“. The winner was elected in the first round, with seven votes, against five for Gaspard Koenig (Humus).
Guy Boley, 72 years old today, around fifty of whom have devoted himself to the art of writing, is originally from Franche-Comté, a country he loves. He was crowned late, after a life in which he exercised many professions other than a writer, including that of a tightrope walker. His first novel (Son of Fire) will not have been published until 2016.
Receiving an award at this age, “it doesn’t hurt», he congratulated himself a few minutes after his triumph. “I arrived this morning by train convinced that I was not going to win», he explained to the journalists present at Place Saint-Germain-des-Prés. “I had worked on Nietzsche for a dance show (…) I realized that it was very important to reestablish the truth“.
The story returns to the close relationship between the philosopher brother and his sister, then to the manipulation of the latter to, posthumously, make him one of the precursor thinkers of Nazism that he was not. His publisher Gret saw in it a “Shakespearean drama“.
In broad daylight and not behind closed doors as for the Goncourt and the Renaudot, the jury for the Prix des Deux Magots deliberated in front of an audience of guests in the large room of the famous brerie in the Saint-Germain-des-Prés district. Created in 1933, the prize is worth 7,750 euros. Until then awarded in January, it was moved to September for his 90th birthday.
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