This weekend saw Leïla Slimani, a young Moroccan writer, win the Sixth Edition of the La Mamounia Literary Award. The prestigious award, attended by international media, helps to encourage and promote francophone Moroccan literature and spread it around the world.
The winning novel, image courtesy of Gallimard
This is news within itself in Moroccan and French literary circles; but what makes this news globally relevant is that the writer who won is female (the first female to win in the six years the awards have been running) and that her protagonist, Adele, is a Parisian sex-addict.
Since the 50 Shades of Grey boom, it seems as though writers have been jumping on the sexual narrative bandwagon. However, this literary device is not new, it’s been a narrative base since Madame Bovary found herself bored at home. What truly makes Slimani’s book ‘Dans le Jardin de L’ogre ‘ (In the Ogre’s Garden) controversial is that no erotic novel by a female has ever won a literary award in the Islamic world.
But controversy is not why it won.
As Christine Orban, French novelist, playwright, lyricist and president of the jury for the fourth consecutive year, said ‘there are innumerable good stories but what makes great literature is how you tell that story, the style and the editing.’
Fellow judge Vincent Engels, a Belgium writer and professor of contemporary literature and history, added that “a great writer will show and not tell; [and]make the reader feel something without explaining it.”
It was for her great mastery of language and the quality of her writing style that she won.
Christine Orban, President of the Jury speaks to the press after the award ceremony at La Mamounia
Leila herself is poised, self-confident, knowledgeable and has an eloquent answer for everything. She explains that the idea for the novel came about when she noticed how many stories there were on the news about men suffering from sex addiction, and so she wanted to write about women suffering from the same thing to balance out the discussion. She read psychiatry books and went on forums that sex addicts visit.
The host of the awards was the sumptuous and inspiring La Mamounia hotel, a recognised patron of art and culture.
Lunch at the French Restaurant in La Mamounia after the Award Ceremony
The jury, composed of 7 internationally renowned writers, had to choose between a shortlist of five books by Moroccan writers published in French over the past year.
The winner received 200,000 MAD (the equivalent of €18,000).
The seven international judges on the panel and Leila on the far right joining them after winning
I look forward to Leila Slimane’s book, which is packed full of rampant, often violent sex with strangers and colleagues, to be translated into English so we can appreciate it for its unique stylistic value.
The palatial entrance to La Mamounia, Marrakech, photo curtest of www.mamounia.com
Synopsis of the book:
Adele and Richard appear to be a happy couple. She’s a journalist, he’s a doctor, and, together, they raise a little boy in their beautiful Parisian apartment. But Adele has a secret. Taking advantage of the freedom she has to do whatever she wants with her time, she looks for opportunities to meet men.Left to her own obsessions, Adele determinedly progresses towards a life of bleak loneliness, extremely depraved sexual encounters and even great danger. However, Richard uncovers the truth. First blinded by rage and grief, he overcomes the urge to leave Adele, and tries to bring her back to him.In the Ogre’s Garden is a dizzy tale, of a person on a quest for absolute truth. Leila Slimani’s precise, raw writing rends open poetic breaches that get more and more emotional, and fleshes out the mysterious silhouette of a female character that is at once timeless and totally modern.
For more information on Leila Slimani visit Gallimard, publisher of Dans le Jardin de L’Ogre.
