Philippe Jaenada has been awarded this year’s Goncourt Prize for his novel L'Inconnue du quai de Javel, according to French media. The novel is about the unsolved murder of Louise Cansot, a young woman killed in 1949, and offers a possible explanation 77 years later.
The 29-year-old Louise had come to Paris to work as a maid but instead became a sought-after model among artists in Montparnasse.
No one was ever caught for the murder, and the police investigation concluded that she had led “a bad life”. Philippe Jaenada gets to the bottom of the murder of the “woman with a hundred portraits” and also suggests a likely killer.
The Goncourt Prize is France’s most prestigious literary award. The winner receives the symbolic sum of 10 euros and a huge boost in book sales.
What do you think?