Prix Goncourt: Pierre Lemaitre

France's most prestigious literary prize, the Goncourt, has been awarded to Pierre Lemaitre for his World War I epic Au revoir là-haut (Goodbye Up There). The Prix Goncourt is a prize in French literature, given by the académie Goncourt to the author of "the best and most imaginative prose work of the year"

It was the first Goncourt win for longtime crime writer Lemaitre and his first non-genre work after a series of successful thrillers. He is best known among English-language readers for the translation of his thriller Alex, which took the 2013 CWA International Dagger award.

"I'm the happiest man on earth. This is a unique moment in a writer's career," Lemaitre said after the win. He said the award was recognition of "the skill that comes from crime writing, from popular fiction".

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Au revoir là-haut de Pierre Lemaître from webtvculture on Vimeo.