Philippe Jaenada wins Prix Goncourt for novel recreating 1949 Paris murder
French author Philippe Jaenada has been awarded the Prix Goncourt, France’s most prestigious literary prize, for his novel L’Inconnue du quai de Javel (The Unknown Woman of the Quai de Javel). The book reconstructs the murder of Louise Cansot, a 29-year-old Breton woman who was found dead on 7 September 1949. Known as “the woman with a hundred portraits,” Cansot was a sought-after life model in Montparnasse.
The police never identified her murderer. Jaenada’s 530-page book suggests a name for the killer and portrays the victim with empathy. Le Monde praised the novel, noting that “he spares no effort in trying to understand his heroine,” and highlighted its humour and “touch of grumpy tenderness.”
Controversy overshadows prize
This year’s Prix Goncourt was overshadowed by an allegation that a longlisted book was “almost entirely” written by artificial intelligence. The book in question, C’était ça ou mourir (It Was That or Die) by Canadian-Haitian author Thélyson Orélien, was withdrawn from the longlist by the Académie Goncourt. Orélien’s Canadian publisher, Boréal, severed ties with the author after an investigation, though Orélien denied using AI.
Jaenada, who had been shortlisted for the Goncourt four times before, has made investigations into old news stories his trademark style. His new book is his 13th novel. He was born in the Île-de-France region. His previous work includes Sulak (2013), about a robber and escape artist who targeted jewellery stores in the 1980s.
For L’Inconnue du quai de Javel, Jaenada drew inspiration from reading and re-reading 74 of the 75 novels in Georges Simenon’s Inspector Maigret series, set in 1940s Paris. Cansot had left Brittany at 16 to work as a maid, and later sat as a life model for painter Jean-Louis Boussingault, who introduced her to other Parisian artists. The original 300-page police report concluded she was a woman of “ill repute,” and contemporary newspapers speculated she was a sex worker or drug addict.
