The Max Gallo Prize, which aims to pay tribute to the great eponymous writer, has for the second time celebrated and enlivened literature by honoring Pierre Assouline, who delivers a historical yet contemporary fresco with his novel The Announcement, spanning fifty years of war in Israel against a backdrop of a love story.
The awarding of the Max Gallo Prize took place at the prestigious Masséna Palace in the city of Nice, a leading museum of art and history, under the presidency of Emmanuel de Waresquiel, a member of the Institut de France, and the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences, who presented the award. The authors in competition were: Victoria Mas with The Temple Orphan, Geneviève Chauvel with Mission in Barbarian Lands, Jacques de Saint Victor with The Wolves of Tangier, Alexandra Lapierre with The Ardent and Very Secret Miles Franklin, Frédéric Vitoux with The Death of the Imperial Prosecutor, Carine Fernandez with The Brief Life and the Great Roads, Antoine Flandrin with The Barbed Wire, and Catherine Clément with Pagan. A brilliant selection indeed, which only enhances Pierre Assouline’s merit.
Humble, discreet, but full of self-deprecation, Pierre Assouline received his award with much emotion. He will confess that this book took 50 years of writing from his life. The autobiographical scope complicated its completion. The events of October 7, 2023, accelerated the writing process.
The author is particularly versatile as he has been a journalist, essayist, literary columnist, biographer, and novelist. He is currently a member of the Goncourt Prize academy. He has long contributed to the editorial work of Lire and the Literary Magazine. He is also a teacher at Sciences-Po. All of this is felt in the reading of this book, which brings together all the talents of this great intellectual. Here is a book to offer to all the historical narrative enthusiasts around you, or to those who appreciate life stories.
An Autobiographical and Enlightening Narrative
“They met in a country at war. Raphaël is French, a student in Paris, and volunteered to help Israel, this young nation invaded by its neighbors’ armies. Esther is Israeli, a soldier, and works in the psychological services of the army. They are twenty years old and would like to believe it’s the most beautiful age of life. What they will share for a few weeks will forever change their relationship with death. Both of them will have to announce it without being prepared for it. It was the fall of 1973 during the Yom Kippur War. Then they lost sight of each other, each in their own country, taken by their destiny. Until fifty years later, to the day, war strikes again… It’s a coming-of-age story and portrait of a beloved woman, ‘The Announcement’ questions, with the tragedy of history, what remains of our attachments despite the passage of time.”
Here is the back cover of the winning book by Pierre Assouline. For readers passionate about history, but also emotions, who seek to understand the beginnings of the contemporary world, here is an excellent book to put in your hands. The narrative accurately targets the historical and geopolitical stakes of the political situation in Israel, and the fine and meticulously crafted writing allows for a true literary experience. The characters, endearing and profound, take us through several decades of history’s upheavals. The novel is also compelling because it shows the fractures that divide and shake the population. The story is all the more full of humanity because it is an autobiographical account, where personal reflections on feelings and the passage of time, the people we have loved, mix with international issues, eternal wars, racism, and intolerance. Therefore, it is a human story, but also documented, thorough, and driven by the concern for historical truth.
