Philippe Vasset wins the Prix Médicis for a novel written under power lines
The jury, chaired by Pascale Roze, crowned "Dans les grandes lignes" on Monday at the restaurant La Méditerranée in Paris. The foreign-novel prize went to Catalan writer Eva Baltasar.
The Prix Médicis 2026 was awarded on Monday to Philippe Vasset for his novel "Dans les grandes lignes", published by Flammarion, according to Livres Hebdo. The jury, presided over by novelist Pascale Roze and including writers Marie Darrieussecq, Anne Garréta and Andreï Makine, chose his book over six other shortlisted titles, Le Monde reported. Vasset succeeds Emmanuel Carrère, last year's winner for "Kolkhoze".
Télérama and Bibliobs describe the novel as a crossing of France along the path of high-voltage power lines. Vasset has published around ten books since 2003.
A Catalan novel honoured abroad
The Médicis jury also named its foreign-novel winner: Eva Baltasar, the Catalan author of "Permafrost", for "Déclin et fascination", published in France by Verdier, Livres Hebdo and Bibliobs reported. According to El País, the book — titled "Ocaso y fascinación" in Spanish — tells a short story centred on precariousness and solitude.
Two further prizes were announced the same day. The Médicis essay prize went to Jean-Baptiste Del Amo for "Une éclaircie" (Stock), while translator and biographer Richard Zenith received a special prize for "Pessoa, l'œuvre-vie" (Seuil), Livres Hebdo noted.
Sources
This article was written from these reports.