The Femina Prize, one of France's top literary prizes, was awarded on Monday to Mauritian-born writer Natasha Appana for her novel “La nuit au coeur” (Gallimard), which links the fates of three women caught in a spiral of male violence.
The jury of the Femina Prize, awarded on the eve of the Goncourt and Renaudo prizes and two days before the Medici, three other major French literary prizes, is all female.
Natasha Appana, also in the running for the Prix Goncourt, was chosen in the second round of voting ahead of four other novels included in the final selection: The Empty House (Minuit) by Laurent Mauvignier, The Great Eclair (Gallimard) by Yakuta Alikavazovic, Irreparable Evil (Miale-Barrault) by Lionel Duroy and The World is Tired. (Limb) by Joseph Incardona.
“I'm so happy to receive the autumn award. This is my 12th book and my first main prize,” she responded to an AFP question.
“This book took me a long time. This is a book about understanding darkness and the dynamics of violence,” the writer added.
The author interweaves the tragic fates of three women to describe the mechanisms of control exerted by jealous, cruel and manipulative men.
“These Women Who Run”
“Out of these nights and these lives, these women who run, these struggling hearts, these moments that are so overwhelming that they defy the measure of time, something had to be done. Write them down, look them in the eyes,” she explains in the book.
One of these women is Chahinez Daoud, the mother of three small children who were burned alive by the husband she left behind in Merignac, near Bordeaux (southwest), in 2021.
The case has caused a stir in France, where a woman dies every three days from violence at the hands of a spouse or ex, and has renewed debate about the treatment of women victims of domestic violence by police and the justice system.
The second is Emma, the author’s cousin, also a mother of three, who was crushed by her husband in 2000 in Mauritius.
The third is the author herself, who fled barefoot from the abusive and paranoid companion she lived with until she was 25 in Mauritius.
“The mechanics of physical and mental control” established by this man who “abuses her, attacks her, isolates her from her friends, follows her, controls her walks and the way she dresses, speaks for her, knows how to talk her down, blackmails her, makes her believe she has no choice but to stay with him…” she describes.
Natasha Appana also talks about the process of creating the book, her investigation, meetings with relatives of the victims and her mood.
“Sometimes I lose faith in this work,” she says, referring to “a kind of obscurity, silence and impotence of literature.”
In 2024, the Femina Prize was awarded to the French-Venezuelan writer Miguel Bonnefoy for The Dream of the Jaguar.
:quality(85):upscale()/2025/10/30/906/n/49350580/43e5159d6903ce506c10d4.73599546_.png?w=150&resize=150,150&ssl=1 "Popsugar Editors Share Their All-Time Favorite Books")
