Bilingual Book Prize

A new literary prize has been awarded for the first time. The Entente Littéraire prize celebrates books aimed at teenagers and young adults translated from English to be published in French or translated from French and published in English. The prize is championed by the UK’s Queen Camilla and France’s First Lady Brigitte Macron, to promote cultural exchange as part of the Entente Cordiale between the two countries, which celebrates its 120^th anniversary in 2024.

The first two books to receive the prize were the graphic novel Voleuse, translated by its author Lucie Bryon to be published in English as Thieves, and The Blue Book of Nebo, by Manon Steffan Ros, translated by Lise Garond as Le livre bleu de Nebo for publication in French. The prize recognises both authors and translators.

In fact, The Blue Book of Nebo was already a translation by its author into English as Llyfr Glas Nebo was originally written in Welsh, her first language, like all of Manon Steffan Ros’s books. It is a post-apocalyptic tale set in a remote Welsh village, Nebo, after a nuclear disaster. A 14-year-old boy (Siôn in Welsh, Dylan in English and French) tries to understand what life was like before the disaster by reading books and compiling clues in a blue notebook.

There is an excellent audio version of the book in English on BBC Sounds.

Thieves is illustrator and author Lucie Bryon’s first graphic novel, a high-school romance. Ella wakes up the morning after a party surrounded by objects that definitely aren’t hers. In fact they appear to belong to her crush Madeleine, who was the party host. But Madeleine had “borrowed” them from other people and now needs help to return them discreetly to their owners.

The prize jury was made up of two British and two French authors specialised in children’s and YA literature, Joseph Coelho, Marie-Aude Murail, Patrice Lawrence and Timothée de Fombelle. It was presided by Joanne Harris, the Franco-British author of Chocolat and many other novels often set in France.