Djaili Amadou Amal’s Les Impatientes won the Prix des Grands Monts 2022 in Saint-Symphorien-sur-Coise, France on September 24, 2022.
Prix des Grands Monts is a literary prize set up to highlight the best in literature by Com’MonLy, the library network of the Monts du Lyonnais since 2020. For the 3rd edition, they opted to focus on and around Africa giving spectators the opportunity to discover more widely the literature, the music, the dance, the tales, and the gastronomy of the African continent.
As part of that event, there was a list of five African writers in the running for the Prix des Grands Monts. After a readers’ votes, the accolade was given to Djaïli Amadou Amal, for her novel Les Impatientes in June.
Amal is the author of Walaande, l’art de partager un mari (2010), Mistiriijo, la mangeuse d’âmes (2013), Munyal, Les Larmes De La Patience (2017), Les Impatientes (2019) and Cœur du Sahel (2022). She has won many accolades including the Prix Goncourt des Lycéens 2020, been a finalist of the Prix Goncourt 2020, and won the Orange Book Prize in Africa 2019.
Les Impatientes which gives the Cameroonian her latest honour retraces the destiny of young Ramla, torn from her love to be married to Safira’s husband, while Hindou, her sister, is forced to marry her cousin. She was celebrated during a reading in St Symphorien sur Coise.
On her win, Djaili Amadou Amal shared on social media, “Impatient girls again distinguished!!! 🏆📖 Happy to be the winner of the Grands D’Monts Africa Prize 2022, for my novel Les Impatientes.”
