Le ghetto interieur by Santiago H. Amigorena gets the Goncourt Prize - Romania's Choice 2019

The Goncourt Prize - Romania's Choice was awarded this year to the Le ghetto interieur / The inner ghetto by Santiago H. Amigorena, Ambassador of France to Romania Michele Ramis on Friday told a press conference organised at the French Institute of Bucharest. "It is a book on the Holocaust and exile, a very profound book on an extremely important theme that is topical in our days too. I wish this novel the success the book of Pauline Delabroy-Allard [the 2018 winner of the Goncourt Prize - Romania's Choice] has also enjoyed, hopefully it will be translated," Michele Ramis said. The French diplomat expressed her satisfaction for "the continuation of this initiative, an effort that kicked off in 2013, offering professors, students and readers the opportunity to discover contemporary literature". The Regional Director of the University Agency of La Francophonie in Central and Eastern Europe, Mohamed Ketata, asserted that "Romania has always been the bearer of a vivid, dynamic Francophonie in the region". "We can affirm that here lies the Francophone heart of our region. Here we set up the Agency's first office, here we have the highest number of member universities. Romania is, after France, the third Francophone university country. It gives us hope that by the end of the year the number of universities will grow," Mohamed Ketata said. The Goncourt Prize - Romania's Choice 2019 is awarded for the 7th consecutive year within a project staged by the French Institute of Romania and the Embassy of France, with support of the University Agency of La Francophonie in Central and Eastern Europe and of Groupe Renault Romania. The jury made up of representatives of the students with the French language and literature faculties with seven universities of Romania (Brasov, Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Craiova, Iasi, Sibiu and Timisoara) have gathered on Friday morning for the final deliberations at the Kyralina French Bookstore. The debates, under the Goncourt Academy patronage, taking place in the presence of French author Pauline Delabroy-Allard, the Goncourt Prize - Romania's Choice 2018 laureate, honorary chair of this edition on behalf of France, and Elena Diaconu, a journalist with Radio Romania International, honorary chair from Romania. The Goncourt Prize - Romania's Choice project was fathered as an instrument capable to ease and speed up the national-scale inter-university cooperation, to contribute to the formation of literary critics specialised in contemporary French literature and Francophone literatures and also to encourage the public to discover this kind of literary creation. The Goncourt Prize - Romania's Choice is organised ever since 2013, Romania being the 5th country of the Goncourt constellation, after Poland (1998), Serbia (2012), Lebanon (2012) and Italy (2013). As many as 19 countries and regions worldwide are currently choosing and awarding such a Goncourt Prize.AGERPRES(RO - author: Daniel Popescu, editor: Mihai Simionescu; EN - author: Maria Voican, editor: Simona Iacob)