Initially not included in the list of the prix Goncourt du premier roman 2016, Joseph Andras is finally the winner, on May 9, 2016, by five votes to four to Catherine Poulain for Le Grand Marin and one vote to Loulou Robert for Bianca, that is - and exceptional fact - two days before its release in bookstores. It is the second Goncourt du premier roman consecutive novel for the editions Actes Sud, what is more about the theme of the Algerian war, after The Meursault Investigation by Kamel Daoud rewarded the previous year. The week before the official announcement of the results, Andras let it known, by his publisher and at the private request of the Académie Goncourt, that he refused to go to Paris, to signify his refusal to participate in the selection. Despite this, the Academy awarded him the prize. – Joseph Andras sent a letter to the Académie Goncourt to decline the prize and his endowment, justifying his decision by declaring that "competition, and rivalry were in his eyes notions foreign to writing and creation." This relatively unusual move, led some media to think that he could be an already famous novelist, on the Gary/Ajar model. As a result of these interrogations, Joseph Andras gave interviews to L'Humanité and to the literary supplement of the Beirut daily L'Orient-Le Jour in which he explained his motivations and his work as a novelist to salute the memory of Fernand Iveton and, again, the reasons for his refusal of the prize: "I could not accept it for the sake of consistency, to help "Institutionalize" this narrative and the ideals worn by the characters. I live in Normandy, quietly, I do not know the literary and Parisian environment, do not want to know more and want more than anything to concentrate on my next texts." Only one photo of him is known. He indicates that he voluntarily keeps away from the mainstream media, .
Work
, Actes Sud, 2016
The book retraces the life of the Communist militant Fernand Iveton, who was the only European executed during the Algerian War because of his commitment and his actions to the National Liberation Front. It is based on the reference bookPour l’exemple, l’affaire Fernand Iveton by and concludes thus: "These pages could not have been written without the patient investigative work of Jean-Luc Einaudi - be he, although disappeared, thanked here."
