The Femina prize awarded to Nathacha Appanah

The Prix Femina, one of the major literary awards in France, was awarded on Monday to Nathacha Appanah for her novel "La nuit au coeur", which links the destinies of three women caught in the spiral of male violence.

The Prix Femina was awarded at the Carnavalet-History of Paris Museum on the eve of the Prix Goncourt and Prix Renaudot, and two days before the Prix Médicis. Nathacha Appanah was chosen after a second round of voting.

Its all-female jury, composed of 12 members, preferred La nuit au cœur (Gallimard) to the four other French novels that were in its last selection: Au grand jamais (Gallimard) by Jakuta Alikavazovic, Un mal irréparable (Mialet-Barrault) by Lionel Duroy, Le monde est fatigué (Finitude) by Joseph Incardona, and La Maison vide (Minuit) by Laurent Mauvignier.

In 2024, the Femina prize was awarded to the Franco-Venezuelan writer Miguel Bonnefoy, for Le Rêve du jaguar .

The jury also awarded the Femina prize for foreign novel to the Irish writer John Boyne for The Elements (Lattès), a work already recognized by the Fnac 2025 Novel Prize.

The Femina essay prize was awarded to French journalist and writer Marc Weitzmann for La part sauvage (Grasset), which celebrates the American novelist Philip Roth.