The Mediterranean Wall Wins 2020 French Voices Grand Prize
Organizers commented: “Dalembert (The Other Side of the Sea) has provided a Tolstoyan narrative of the contemporary immigrants’ exodus from war, famine, poverty, criminality and injustice to a better life across the Mediterranean Sea. Following in intimate detail the lives of three women from disparate religions and cultures, and nations – Nigeria, Eritrea, and Syria – Dalembert compassionately depicts these three women and the bond they form together in their mutual struggle to escape to Europe via an overcrowded, dilapidated boat across the sea, the metaphorical wall between their former lives and the future. Certain to appeal to readers of literature of migration and such recent fiction as Behold the Dreamers and The Lost Children Archive.”
French Voices Grand Prizes, sponsored by the Cultural Services division of the French Embassy in the U.S., recognizes “the quality of both the original work and the translation” and epitomizes “the many facets of a vibrant French literary scene.” Both grand prize winners received $10,000.
