Wednesday, December 4, at the European Parliament in Brussels, was presented on 13e European book prize to two authors that nothing brings them closer than they have placed Europe at the heart of their project. The first is the French writer Laurent Gaudé, author of We, Europe, people's banquet (Actes Sud, 182 pp. 17.80 euros), which means, in an epic and utopian work, to fight against a disembodied Europe. "What binds us is to be an anguished people", writes the author of Scorta Sun (Actes Sud, 2004), which was represented by its editor Françoise Nyssen.
The second, the British novelist Jonathan Coe, winner for The Heart of England (Gallimard, 560 p., 23 euros) draws the clinical report of a failure. "Today, I'm sad, because I'm probably the last English author to receive a European prize, did he declare. This is a poignant moment. " If, as the polls suggest, the general elections of 12 December give an absolute majority to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the European destiny of his homeland will be sealed. As David Sassoli, President of the European Parliament, has pointed out, Jonathan Coe's novel is "The only good news related to Brexit".
"Maybe my daughter's generation will come back to Europe, but today there is too much anger," Jonathan Coe
However, his first intention was not to make the Brexit novel, but to write about "Cultural wars" which constitute, in European countries, the ferment of populist movements. The author of English testament (Gallimard, 1997) reminded that on June 23, 2016, 16 million Britons had voted to stay in the European Union. "These voices have not disappeared and do not agree with current directions", he said.
The writer concluded with a quote from MP Jo Cox, murdered by an extremist a week before the vote on Brexit. "What surprises me regularly when I move in the riding is that we have more hyphens and commonalities than differences," said the Labor Party leader in the House of Commons one year before his death. A quote that the writer has placed in the foreground of the part of his novel devoted to "Old England".
