The jury of the Wepler Prize – La Poste Foundation, made up of readers – including one in a detention center -, booksellers and journalists under the direction Marie-Rose Guarnierifounder and Elizabeth Sanchez, awarded the prize to antonio passeronauthor of her first novel children sleeping published by Globe and the special mention to Lucia Rico for his second novel gps, Posted by Pol
The winners will receive their prize and the accompanying prize money (€10,000 and €3,000) this Monday, November 14, during an evening at the famous Place Clichy brasserie in Paris.
AIDS inside Nice in the 1980s
Already a winner of the Première Plume award, Anthony Passeron, 39, is a history, geography and French teacher in Nice. His first novel, whose translation rights have been acquired in many countries, particularly in the United States and England, is a story of filiation that crosses sociological research and intimate history. The narration takes place in the interior of Nice, forty years after the death of his uncle Désiré, the author questions his family’s past, from the social rise of his butcher grandparents during the glorious thirties to the appearance of AIDS and the fight against disease in hospitals.
Young woman tested by an age
In his second novel gps, an extra in the first selection of the Premio Femina, Lucie Rico, 34, unravels the ties that unite teenage female friendships, explores what remains of them fifteen years later and delves into the meanderings of the psyche of a young woman put to test for an era – that of unemployment and everything digital – that literally made him lose his mind. “In GPS, a young woman speaks to herselfwriting Maria Fouquet in his precriticism. More than a fictional self-portrait, this book translates the delirious, depressed and frustrated introspection of an unemployed woman in her early thirties. Dividing her time between boredom, job hunting, and waiting for her firefighter boyfriend, this former news editor has forged an intimate and complex relationship with her phone.“.
Every year since 1998, the Wepler Prize – La Poste Foundation, created by the Parisian bookstore Abbesses, crowns two authors of unclassifiable contemporary literary works. Last year, the award was given to Antoine Wauters for Mahmoud where the rising waters (Verdier) and special mention to Laura Vazquez for perpetual week (Basement).