"Liberty, I write your name," says Paul Eluard, who if he had been Iranian would have written it in Persian: "Azadi" (ed. The jurors of the prize of the novel MC 2015 could not not be sensitive to such a title, but it was necessary that the contents of the book be up to the level ... We discussed it in the salon of the hotel Montalembert, traditional place of our exchanges, debates and, more rarely, disagreements.

This year there were some shards. Books are a passion, which, as such, necessarily provokes excesses. It should be noted, however, that none of the six candidates for the award found themselves without a fan, if only because half of the jury (three members of our editors) had selected them for this final. At the end of these sometimes sportive deliberations, when Virginie Despentes' mighty "Vernon Subutex 1" seemed to have a chance, Azadi, when we passed the last vote, clearly won.

Indeed, beyond the title, this chronicle of the life of an Iranian student, hardly politicized but demonstrating, like many others in 2009, against rigged elections and a life constrained by many prohibitions, has something universal. Since no freedom is acquired forever, and the characteristic of a great novel is to make us feel closely all that we have in common with characters who, seen from afar, seem so different from us.

We have been, as you will surely also, moved and captivated by this story of resilience. The end could be summed up in two of the last verses of Eluard's poem: "And by the power of a word / I begin my life again . " This word whose heroine will pay dearly for the price: freedom.