DW: American Author's Nazi Novel Wins France's Top Literary Prize

[blackhorse]

American Author's Nazi Novel Wins France's Top Literary Prize

American Jonathan Littell, won France's top literary prize, the Goncourt, for his French novel "Les Bienveillantes" about a fictional German SS officer's memoirs.

Littell first drafted "Les Bienveillantes", whose title means "The Well-Meaning Ones" or "The Kindly Ones", over four months while living in Moscow. The book is a first-person fictional account, without remorse, of the Nazi extermination of the Jews by a former German SS officer.

The prize jury said Littell's debut novel easily triumphed over a field of three other works from French authors with a 7-3 vote.

The book is already a sensation in France, where it sits atop the best-seller list with more than 250,000 copies sold.

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,2227321,00.html

[rodeodance]

1. NPR did a good segment about this yesterday.

[Flagg]

2. Yet another example of French anti-americanism

:sarcasm:

[cyr330]

3. I just ordered it

There was an interesting article about it in the NYT this morning, and I just ordered it from Amazon. I hope it matches its hype!

[Sequoia]

4. Well, we have to wait until 2008.

That is just too far away.