261 Francophone and European novels – a total of six languages - in high school, 6 months of readings, debates and exchanges… This is what it took to determine the winners of the 39th edition of the Chambéry First Novel Festival, which will be held from Thursday 27th to Sunday 31st May in the capital city of Savoy.
«La Ridente» – as Chambéry is called – will welcome 21 authors, including 16 French speakers (including one Belgian and one from Quebec) and 5 Europeans (Italian, German, English, Spanish and Romanian), who have been chosen from a network of 1,700 readers in France and internationally, who read in French and the other selected languages. For Italy this year, the “Strettese” novel by Anna Mallamo was chosen, the Gazzetta journalist who made her debut in the Einaudi Supercoralli with the novel «In the dark I see her», already winner of the SuperMondello Prize, the Arena di Acri Prize, finalist for the Berto Prize, in competition at the brand new «Super Book» in New York and proposed for the Strega Prize by Marina Valensise.
At their side Jean-Baptiste Andréa, sponsor of this edition, as well as Victor Jestin, Sylvie Le Bihan, Anthony Passeron, Hugo Paviot, Mabrouck Rachedi, Eliovòz, Raphaël Quenard, Rouda and Guillaume Viry. The program is very rich: there will be meetings in French and in the other languages of the festival, exchanges, translation workshops, a literary ball, a moment for youth illustrators and much more. It will be announced on April 22nd at the Georges Brassens Library and on the festivalpremierroman.com website.