The 26th Nice Book Festival is back this weekend under the palm trees of the Albert 1st Garden and in the cultural venues of the Côte d’Azur capital.
Under the exceptional presidency of Sylvain Tesson, writer, traveler, geographer, and winner of the 2014 Baie des Anges prize, more than 200 authors gather in Nice around the theme “Writing: an adventure!”.
At the inauguration of this event for word enthusiasts, local officials, including Philippe Vardon, Eric Ciotti, and of course the Mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi, were also present.
The latter first expressed his love for reading and its power: “The happiness of the mayor is to see through books and reading, the most beautiful space of freedom there is. Nothing like that is punished in great democracies… A political leader has no right to judge the spaces of freedom where everyone expresses themselves freely.” The elected official from Nice also warmly thanked the authors and book lovers present in Nice for this literary event, where for three days, meetings, signings, shows, readings, and conferences on the theme of adventure take place under the artistic direction of Franz-Olivier Giesbert.
After the words of Christian Estrosi, and to close this inauguration, the 2022 Baie des Anges Prizes were awarded. For the first time, the azurean prize jury was unable to decide between two authors, both of whom were rewarded.
The well-known author David Foenkinos received the prize for his book “Numero Two”, which imagines the trajectory of the unfortunate finalist in the Harry Potter casting by questioning failure. “I carry Nice in my heart since I wrote Charlotte in 2014… This Baie des Anges prize is a cherry on the heart”.
The other winner, Thierry Vimal, was then presented for his book “For the Sake of Suffered Injuries”. Having lost his daughter on July 14, 2016, the resident of Nice tried to understand “the attitude of our society towards terrorism victims” in his latest book. In his speech, Thierry Vimal addressed the complexity of selling his book with a dark subject to the press but thanked those “who helped it grow and exist”, “Nice and its mayor”, and “the National Book Center” for allowing him to write “in a certain comfort.”
The complete program of this 2022 Nice Book Festival:
