ABSTRACT
The 2002 Goncourt Prize for the Novel went to Pascal Quignard’s Les Ombres errantes, an odd choice in that the book is neither a novel nor designed for general readers (as the Goncourt brothers’ testament stipulates). It furthermore represents, with the simultaneously published Sur le jadis and Abîmes, only the first part of a trilogy (that has since swelled into a pentalogy, with more volumes surely to come). It was refreshing to see the prize, too often awarded to mediocre commercial novels, go to an innovative and challenging book.
