Jonathan Littell, Prix Goncourt and now French citizen

Jonathan Littell, Prix Goncourt and now French citizen

Paris

Last September, Jonathan Littell, son of the journalist and writer Robert Littell, was the first American to win the Prix Goncourt, France’s top literary award, for his novel Les Bienveillantes (an English-language version is scheduled for publication in 2008). The book, of which over 600,000 copies have been sold, relates the confessions of a former SS officer.

The author has now just been granted French nationality, a decision taken pursuant to the French Nationality code which allows "Francophone public figures who have contributed by their action to heightening France’s impact on the world" to become French citizens.

He follows in the footsteps of several great writers, including Eugène Ionesco, Milan Kundera and Hector Bianciotti.

Jonathan Littell is also the author of Bad Voltage (1989), written in English, but which also already contained many references to French culture and the city of Paris.