Pierre Lemaitre on how a crime novelist won France's greatest literary prize

By Philippa Hawker
Updated November 12 2015 - 10:13am, first published November 7 2015 - 12:15am
Pierre Lemaitre is particularly pleased to be awarded the Prix Goncourt, saying it doesn't often go to crime novelists. Photo: Thierry Rajic
Pierre Lemaitre is particularly pleased to be awarded the Prix Goncourt, saying it doesn't often go to crime novelists. Photo: Thierry Rajic

I was extremely shocked, I tell Pierre Lemaitre, by the last sentence of the first chapter of his new novel, The Great Swindle. I didn't know what to think. He laughs, but he understands. When he was writing the book and found himself typing the words "Albert Maillard, soldier, has just died", he wasn't sure what to make of it either.

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