By Sohaib Shams
French author Philippe Jaenada has won the prestigious Prix Goncourt for his true crime novel "L’Inconnue du quai de Javel" (The Unknown Woman of the Quai de Javel), which revisits the unsolved 1949 murder of Paris life model Louise Cansot.
Novel Reexamines 1949 Murder of Louise Cansot
Cansot, a 29-year-old Breton woman known as "the woman with a hundred portraits" for her work as an artists' model in Montparnasse, was found dead on September 7, 1949. Police never identified her killer, and the original investigation labeled her a woman of "ill repute," with contemporary reports speculating she was a sex worker or drug addict.
Author's Investigation Rehabilitates Victim
Jaenada's 530-page book challenges those conclusions, not only by proposing a suspect but also by offering an empathetic portrayal of Cansot. The author drew inspiration from rereading 74 of Georges Simenon's Inspector Maigret novels set in 1940s Paris. Le Monde praised the book's humor and "touch of grumpy tenderness" in its effort to understand its heroine.
Controversy Over AI-Written Rival Book
This year's prize was overshadowed by allegations that another longlisted novel, "C’était ça ou mourir" by Canadian-Haitian author Thélyson Orélien, was "almost entirely" written by artificial intelligence. The Académie Goncourt removed Orélien's book from the longlist, and his publisher Boréal severed ties after an investigation. Orélien has denied using AI.
Jaenada, born in Île-de-France, had been shortlisted for the Goncourt four times previously. He has made investigations into old news stories his trademark since his 2013 book "Sulak," about a notorious 1980s jewel thief.
