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“Madelaine, avant l’aube” by Sandrine Collette has won the first-ever Nordic Choix Goncourt Award!

The novel captivated the jury with the power of its storytelling, the richness of its imagination, and its evocative, fable-like narrative style.

For its very first edition, the Nordic Goncourt Choice brought together literature-loving students from universities across Denmark, Finland, Iceland, and Sweden, uniting them around a shared mission: to award a prize to the author whose novel they deemed the most outstanding among the four finalists of the original Prix Goncourt.

Following lively and thoughtful debates, Sandrine Collette emerged as the jury’s choice with her novel Madelaine, Before Dawn (Madelaine, avant l’aube).

In this novel, Collette introduces us to Madelaine, a fiercely determined heroine. Through her, the narrative pays tribute to the courage it takes to resist — against the unforgiving climate, the threat of famine, and the arbitrariness of an unequal society, no matter the cost. At a time when autobiographical writing occupies a dominant place in the global literary landscape, Madelaine, Before Dawn marks a powerful return to fiction, driven by bold, immersive storytelling.

The Finnish members of the jury described the winning novel as gripping and masterfully constructed, especially in its character development. While they all emphasized the intensity of the narrative, they also praised its fictional nature — preserved through narrative elements that are deliberately left open or unresolved, adding to the work’s subtle depth.

The final deliberation took place on Friday, May 30, 2025, and was opened by Philippe Claudel, President of the Académie Goncourt and renowned author whose works have been widely translated into Nordic languages.

The Nordic Goncourt Choice is a regional adaptation of the prestigious French literary prize, the Prix Goncourt. While individual juries already existed in Sweden and Finland, this is the first time the entire Nordic region has come together under a single literary banner — a major milestone for French-language literature abroad.

The initiative was organized in partnership with the French Institutes of Sweden, Denmark, and Finland, the Alliance Française of Reykjavik, and the French Embassy in Iceland — a vibrant literary and Francophone adventure that is, without a doubt, only just beginning.