The Most Secret Memory of Men

The novel tells the story of a young Senegalese writer named Diégane Latyr Faye, living in Paris who discovers a 1938 novel by the fictional African author T.C. Elimane, nicknamed "the Black Rimbaud". The story mirrors the life of Malian writer Yambo Ouologuem, who won the Prix Renaudot in 1968, but was later accused of plagiarism, left France and disappeared from public life. The novel is primarily set in Senegal and Paris, but also moves to Amsterdam and Buenos Aires. It consists of three books that are interrupted by "biographèmes" (Roland Barthes). == Reception ==

restaurant in Paris to receive the Prix Goncourt on 3 November 2021 On 3 November 2021, the novel was awarded the Prix Goncourt. Sarr won in the first round of voting, by six votes against three votes for Sorj Chalandon's Enfant de salaud and one vote for Louis-Philippe Dalembert's Milwaukee Blues. Sarr is the first person from Sub-Saharan Africa to win the Prix Goncourt. At 31 years old, he is also the youngest Goncourt laureate since Patrick Grainville won in 1976. Sarr's novel was also shortlisted for the Prix Femina and Prix Renaudot; and longlisted for the Prix Médicis ''L'Express magazine said the award declared "the revelation of the literary year", a "shining proof of the vitality and universality of the French language". Le Monde'' said the "impressive ambition and stunning energy" of Sarr's novel "carried all before it". The review in The New York Times described the novel as "a wildly expansive interrogation of everything from the nature of erotic love to the literary canon. We traverse the gamut of genres — the mystery, the ghost story, the philosophical novel, the historical novel, the magical realist tale — as Sarr navigates a spider's web that enmeshes fact and fiction, biography and gossip, authenticity and plagiarism, fame and infamy." == References ==