Neige Sinno, winner of the Goncourt for high school students: “Teenagers are ready for serious subjects”

And two! After the Femina prize, Neige Sinno has just won the Goncourt prize for high school students. At 1:05 p.m., twenty minutes late (were the results close?), the high school delegates chose to crown, from the town hall of Rennes, cradle of the Prize, Triste Tigre (ed. P.O.L.), a book on incest, on the powers and impotence of literature.

We know the passion of high school students for books on societal subjects. Last year, they crowned Sabyl Ghoussoub for his novel Beirut-sur-Seine, an autobiography in which he recounted the life of his family, exiled, torn between France and Lebanon from the 70s to the present day. Before him, it was Clara Dupont-Monod, for Adapt, a novel (which also won the Femina prize) about the birth of a disabled child as told by his siblings; even before Djaïli Amadou Amal for Les impatientes, a novel about violence against women in Cameroon and before her, high school students rewarded Karine Tuil for Les Choses humaine, a novel about rape.

Besides its subject, we cannot deny the obvious literary qualities of Triste Tigre. Fair and powerful. What a journey for this book arrived by post! And what a feat! It has been ten consecutive weeks that Neige Sinno has been at the top of bookstore sales, just behind Jean-Baptiste Andrea, winner of the 2023 Goncourt prize with Veiller sur elle (L'Iconoclaste), first in the Fnac/Le Point bestseller rankings. Neige Sinno confides in Le Figaro.

LE FIGARO. - You say in “Triste Tigre” that you hesitated for a long time to speak, before choosing to write “in a kind of senseless rebellion”.

Snow SINNO. - I did not write this novel as a provocation, but as a challenge: dare to think, dare to reflect, dare to say. Even if I didn't know who I was addressing, I hope that the reader that I constructed in my text and who exists today dares to think, to set ideas, observations, questions in motion. . When I see a person who tells me “I wondered,” it makes me happy about this text.

You took part in the Goncourt regional meetings for high school students. Was it more difficult to address young readers than adults?

I speak the same way. Their questions and their approach to my book are different from those of other generations. Before being read by readers, my book was read by friends of my age (the author is 46 years old, editor's note). I'm surrounded by people who are from a generation where we ask the question: "How do I be a protective adult?" » We think about our childhood as something that constitutes us and that comes from our past. I have the impression that younger people don't see themselves in the same way. I am part of activist circles in which there are much younger women, some in their twenties, I see that the relationship with my subject is more burning, because they are closer to childhood. Adolescence is an age when we ask ourselves philosophical questions, about violence, about good, evil... It was therefore a great joy to participate in the Goncourt of high school students, to know that we were able to touch serious topics with people who are serious. They are at the moment where they are going to define their life, their relationship with others. They think about dominant-dominated, man-woman relationships... They are ready for serious topics.

What reader were you as a teenager?

I read a lot. I remember reading A White and Dry Season by André Brink in high school. I read everything, especially fiction. I went to the library and looked through it. I liked reading, I liked deciphering the world. I was caught up in the words. Reading was part of my daily life. As I was the one who read the most and at school we were asked to make reading sheets, I made the summaries for the others. This allowed me to share the books with my friends. I even managed to get some of them read!

What were you looking for when you read?

All. I was also looking for answers to my personal story. I remember reading Me, Christiane F. 13 years old, drug addict, prostitute… in middle school. Without realizing it, I projected myself into books to try to understand things about the violence I was experiencing.

Have you changed your outlook on literature?

Yes, of course, I studied literature and I am now a university student. The question of form arises much more than when I was a high school student, but I think I asked it unconsciously in my reading frenzy, reading poetry, adventure novels... Today, I read a lot of non-fiction. I am fascinated by this genre.