Mohamed Mbougar Sarr has won the Prix Goncourt, France’s most coveted literary award, becoming the first sub-Saharan African author to do so, the Guardian reports.
Mbougar Sarr, who was born and raised in Senegal, took home the prize for his novel La plus secrète mémoire des hommes, or The Most Secret Memory of Men. At 31, he’s the youngest Prix Goncourt winner since Patrick Grainville was honored with the prize in 1976.
“With this young author, we have returned to the fundamentals of the Goncourt,” Philippe Claudel, the novelist, filmmaker, and prize jury member said. “Thirty-one years old—he has a few books ahead of him. Let’s hope this award will not dampen his desire to write them.”
The Paris Beacon reports that Mbougar Sarr said that he feels “a lot of joy, simply.”
“There is no age in literature,” he said. “You can arrive very young, or at 67, at 30, at 70, and yet be very old,” he added.
Mbougar Sarr’s previous novels include Terre ciente, published in English as Brotherhood, Silence du chœur (Silence of the Choir), and De purs hommes (Pure Men).
The Prix Goncourt has been awarded annually since 1903. Previous winners have included Marguerite Duras for The Lover, Patrick Chamoiseau for Texaco, and Nicolas Mathieu for And Their Children After Them.
Michael Schaub is a Texas-based journalist and regular contributor to NPR.
