A literary event at the Istec business school this Thursday evening. Lionel Duroy, author of’An irreparable harm wins the Grand Prix Littéraire and succeeds Delphine Minoui, who won last year's award for Badjens.

For two years now, I've had the pleasure of being involved in organising this prize, devised by publisher David d'Equainville. A panel of prestigious jurors, far removed from the world of literature or publishing, who have no tongue in cheek, will say all the good and bad things they think about the books submitted to them. «We? Yes, that's me, the person responsible for choosing the seven shortlisted books, I admit it.

Finistère by Anne Berest (Albin Michel), An irreparable harm by Lionel Duroy (Mialet-Barrault), Laure by Kevin Orr (Seuil), Radio officer by Marie Richeux (Sabine Wespieser), A strange sorrow by Justine Lévy (Stock), Vertu and Rosalinde by Anne Serre (Mercure de France) and Sporen by Julia Sintzen (José Corti). Seven novels.

Among them, I had my favourite, as you can imagine.

They have all been shortlisted for one of the major new literary awards (Goncourt, Renaudot, Femina, Médicis...) without winning a single one. Another challenge is that the authors, or failing that their publishers, must be present in the room to watch the deliberations. At the risk of sometimes bleeding from the ears when faced with the cruelty of some of the comments. Anne Berest and Kevin Orr paid the price this year, despite their courage and resilience.

It took a lot to witness the coronation of Lionel Duroy and’An irreparable evil, It was also an excellent novel. Well done to the Istec students for their organisational skills and the quality of their support on social networks.