UNESCO CHAIR For Inter-Religious Dialogue Studies in The Islamic World
As part of the activities of the Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie (AUF), and in the presence of Dr. Alaa Shatnan, Director of the UNESCO Chair at the University of Kufa, along with the participation of two Iraqi female students from the Universities of Baghdad and Al-Mustansiriya, and a male student from the University of Mosul, the novel Jacaranda by Gaël Faye was announced as the winner of the 2024 Goncourt Prize for the East. The novel was published by Editions Grasset et Fasquelle.
Jacaranda was selected in the first round of voting, receiving 19 out of 32 votes from the student jury during a secret ballot held on the morning of Wednesday, April 9, 2025, at the French Cultural Center in Beirut, under the presidency of Lebanese writer Salma Kojok.
The selection process involved committees composed of students from French language departments across Middle Eastern countries, who worked over several months to choose the best Francophone novel published in 2024.
During the award announcement, students from across the Middle East shared their impressions and emotional responses to reading Jacaranda, a novel that deeply resonated with them—especially in the current regional context—due to its strong denunciation of the Rwandan civil war and its message of hope for liberation from extremism, violence, and sectarian and religious conflicts.
This project, implemented in partnership with the Académie Goncourt and the French Institutes in the Middle East, continues to bring students together around Francophone literature and promote the French language.
Jacaranda will soon be translated into Arabic with support from the French Institute in Lebanon.
