English-language editions of French novels drawing upon everything from immigration to Burundi’s civil war to Nazism in the 1930s are finalists for the $10,000 Albertine Prize.
The nominees, announced Thursday, include the rapper-novelist Gael Faye’s Burundi narrative “Small Country” and Franco-Iranian Negar Djavadi’s multigenerational “Disoriental”. Also nominated were Franco-Mauritian Nathacha Appanah’s family saga “Waiting for Tomorrow”, Franco-Moroccan Leila Slimani’s “The Perfect Nanny” and French author-filmmaker Eric Vuillard’s novel about the Nazis’ rise, “The Order of the Day”.
The award is presented by the Cultural Services of the French Embassy and Van Cleef & Arpels, and voted on by U.S readers through the Albertine website. The deadline is April 30. The winning author receives $8,000, and the translator $2,000. CC
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