Among the 6 finalists, it is Hélène Zimmer who wins the prize! Find out more about her, and her first novel.

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In short: the story of a young woman who wears everything on her shoulders. Her unemployed husband and joint smoker, her three children, her saleswoman job, stress due to her modest salary and her head with a twisted mentality and, as a bonus, household chores. When suddenly, a burst of reality in their home will make them believe in the fairy tale announced in the title.

Eyeful

This first novel, very visual, implacable of realism but not devoid of humor and punctuated by a terribly effective suspense (will they manage to overcome their galleys?), Is signed by a author of 27 years just to its credit 'a feature film, At 14, the frontal story of three college girls. She was also a little actress, notably in Q (everything is in the title) of Laurent Bouhnik, but also manages with the other twenty-five letters of the alphabet.

Word of mouth

She lives far from Paris, so she was contacted by telephone immediately after the jury's vote in her favor, before meeting her at the award ceremony.

Read more about this novel here

MC: What prompted you to talk about France "from below", this France that row?
Hélène Zimmer: These people have little presence in the media and artistic landscapes. They are often despised, caricatured. As if all these people were "beaufs". My characters show that this is not the case.

Are you, personally, close to Coralie, your heroine in galley?
I will not go into my biography. But let's say that I put my experience of femininity there. I wrote this book when I was pregnant. I already sensed a kind of threat as a woman. The work of maternity, which in our society lacks as much gratitude as support ... And after birth, indeed, what a shock: reality in the mouth!

The simplest pitch of your book?
It's about femininity and the couple. A family confronted with financial problems that is found in a reality TV show raising hope.

And a less simple pitch?
The difficulty of living as a couple, of making a family, of having a life. And all these responsibilities that one endorses in everyday life as a woman: is it imposed or natural? Coralie is sometimes overwhelmed, as if suspended in a vacuum. Isolated by these charges. Ensconced. My goal was for the reader to ask, "Why does she suffer all this? Why does she stay with her husband? With this job so painful? "

And yet, it is not sad. We smile often enough, even.
Yes I think. In writing some scenes, I made jokes, I did not want it to be scary.

In the scenarios you write, as in this novel and in the next, what is your engine?
Registration of the individual in a group (school, family, etc.). With this question: "How to act collectively? For today every one lives within himself. So how to find others?

The award-winning novel and its main competitors

As every year, the jury of the Prix MC of the feminine novel met at the restaurant of the Hotel Montalembert, but this time imposing bodyguards guarded the entrance. Some members of our jury were worried about whether we had taken this precaution in the event of agitated deliberations ... Relief: it was the close protection of the then Prime Minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, who came to lunch at a few tables of us . We were able to start the debate with confidence. Among the six finalist books, 1 all of remarkable quality, two were detached from the jury's preferences. Two rough, harsh novels, in direct contact with reality (family, lover, social): A woman on the phone of Carole Fives and Fairy tale of Hélène Zimmer. Each one had a very controlled form and a particular humor, we had fallen under their powerful charm, and the struggle for the first place was tough.

And won by Fairy tale, whose title, chosen by derision, is that of a reality show whose winner, unemployed, earns a job. It remains to be seen what work, and what b ... .l it puts in its
family and in his couple, yet armed with a solid sexuality. This novel, ultra-realistic in its dialogues and situations, with a fast and precise style, without psychological tartine nor prettiness, is also
cinematographic, a successful mix of Ken Loach, Maurice Pialat and the Dardenne brothers ... That's why we gave him the palm.

Words of Jurors

Anne Assous (Folio): "I really liked the lively style and the very visual writing of Fairy tale. I would also like to quote "A woman on the phone", with this odious and touching mother talking to her daughter without any taboo on any subject, it is very original and fair. This call was received five out of five by all jurors. "

Marianne Mairesse (MC): "The laureate wrote a very beautiful portrait of a woman, realistic and rough, even in the details of daily life, to striking prosaism. Coralie, the heroine, struggles,
fights and imposes itself by leaving its mark, which remains. "

Nina Bouraoui (writer): "Hélène Zimmer is an extralucid. His world reads skin to skin, heart to heart. Social and economic wit, cries, nerves and reality show. Her heroine is a resistant who never abandons the use of life or that of love. "

Fabrice Gaignault (MC): "Fairy tale deserved the prize, for the accuracy of its descriptions and the kind of cinema-truth without pathos of this novel. I would add that A woman on the phone seduced me by the impressive force of this toxic maternal monologue. "

Peggy Heronneau (Chantelivre): "This social novel gives the floor to those who do not have it. To this screaming woman who disarms us, for love and protector. "The bookseller also loved" L'impersonne ":" A very strong novel about alcohol and the difficulty of being filled by the bottle, written without concession or complaint. "

1. The finalists Fairy tale by Hélène Zimmer (eds POL), The abandonment of the pretensions of Blandine Rinkel (eds Fayard), The impersonal of Martine Roffi nella (François Bourin), We will leave Elsa Fottorino (edited by Mercure de France), Peggy in the lighthouses of Marie-Eve Lacasse (edited by Flammarion) and Une femme au téléphone by Carole Fives (edited by L'Arbalète / Gallimard).
2. The jury Anne Assous, director of Folio, Nina Bouraoui, writer, Gilles Chenaille, critic and head of the website ruedesauteurs.net, Fabrice Gaignault, editor-in-chief of culture and celebrities of MC, chairman of the jury, Peggy Heronneau Chantelivre (Issyles-Moulineaux), and Marianne Mairesse, editor-in-chief of MC

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