--- title: How to Read the Four Novels Competing for the 2026 Prix Goncourt Before Tuesday's Verdict in Paris description: Jaenada, Haenel, Mélois and Prudhomme are the four Prix Goncourt 2026 finalists. What each novel is about before the winner is named on 3rd November. author: Dr Marina Nani (Editor-in-Chief) date: 2026-11-02T09:00:45.057Z updated: 2026-11-02T09:00:45.078Z canonical: https://richbooksmagazine.com/article/how-to-read-the-four-novels-competing-for-the-2026-prix-goncourt-before-tuesday-s-verdict-in-paris image: https://cdn.nanimediahouse.com/pexels-27292649.webp categories: Literary Fiction, Reading Lists content_type: Guide publication: Rich Books schema_type: Article about: - type: Thing name: Prix Goncourt description: The most prestigious literary prize in France, awarded each November by the Académie Goncourt to a novel written in French. First presented in 1903, it carries a symbolic cheque for €10. url: https://www.academiegoncourt.com/presentation-prix-goncourt --- On Tuesday 3rd November, around lunchtime, Philippe Claudel will stand on the staircase of the Drouant restaurant on Place Gaillon in Paris and read out the name of the 124th winner of the Prix Goncourt. The prize itself is a cheque for €10. The real reward is the red band the winning book wears in every French bookshop until Christmas, and the sales that come with it. The Académie Goncourt cut its list to four on Tuesday 27th October. The finalists are Philippe Jaenada's *L'inconnue du quai de Javel* (Flammarion), Yannick Haenel's *La solitude des professeurs est infinie* (Gallimard), Clémentine Mélois's *Choses que je croyais perdues* (L'Arbalète/Gallimard) and Sylvain Prudhomme's *De l'autre côté du lac* (Minuit). All four imprints belong to Madrigall, the Gallimard family holding company and France's fourth-largest publisher. The jury left out two of the autumn's biggest sellers, by Anne Godard and Sonia Devillers. If you like a true crime story told by someone who cannot stop digging, start with *L'inconnue du quai de Javel*, which translates as *The Unknown Woman of the Quai de Javel*. On 6th September 1949, a young woman was found dead on the quai de Javel, in what is now the 15th arrondissement, without her bag or her shoes. She was Louise Cansot, a model much in demand among the painters of Montparnasse. The police closed the case six months later with no one charged. Seventy-five years on, Jaenada reopens the file. He works through the archives, walks the streets she knew and travels to Tréguier, the small Breton town where she grew up. He reread every Maigret novel before he began, and he borrows the inspector's patience. The book runs to 528 pages and costs €23. It sold 17,000 copies in its first three weeks, the fastest start of Jaenada's career, before the Goncourt jury had even published its first list. ### Book: L'inconnue du quai de Javel By Philippe Jaenada In 1949 Louise Cansot, a model for the Montparnasse painters, was found murdered on the quai de Javel in Paris, and the case was closed months later without an answer. Seventy-six years on, Philippe Jaenada reopens the investigation. A finalist for the 2026 Prix Goncourt. [Fnac](https://www.fnac.com/SearchResult/ResultList.aspx?Search=9782080490896) If you have ever taught, or owe something to a teacher who stayed late for you, read *La solitude des professeurs est infinie*, or *The Loneliness of Teachers Is Infinite*. Jean Deichel, Haenel's fictional double, looks back thirty years to his trainee year teaching French at a struggling secondary school in Mantes-la-Jolie, west of Paris. Haenel taught for 17 years himself, and the novel grew out of a piece he wrote for Charlie Hebdo in 2021. Near its last page, the book names itself a tribute to Samuel Paty and Dominique Bernard, the two teachers killed in attacks in France in 2020 and 2023. It runs to 320 pages and costs €21.50. ### Book: La solitude des professeurs est infinie By Yannick Haenel Thirty years on, the narrator Jean Deichel looks back on his first year as a French teacher at a difficult school in Mantes-la-Jolie, west of Paris. Worn down by long journeys, money worries and fading hopes, he retreats into a deep solitude. A finalist for the 2026 Prix Goncourt. [Fnac](https://www.fnac.com/SearchResult/ResultList.aspx?Search=9782073161925) *Choses que je croyais perdues*, or *Things I Thought Were Lost*, is the shortest of the four at 176 pages and €19, and the one you can finish in an evening. A young woman packs up her flat after a break-up. A plate with a gold rim, a camel-coloured outfit and a roll of kitchen paper each bring back a story she thought she had put away for good. Mélois is a member of Oulipo, the Paris writers' group famous for its playful rules, and the novel treats ordinary objects with the same care other books give to people. If you have ever moved house after a relationship ended, you will recognise every box. ### Book: Choses que je croyais perdues By Clémentine Mélois After a break-up, a woman packing up her flat finds that every object brings back a memory, from her childhood in Lorraine and her years working in a bar to her family and the man she is leaving. A finalist for the 2026 Prix Goncourt. [Fnac](https://www.fnac.com/SearchResult/ResultList.aspx?Search=9782073162854) *De l'autre côté du lac*, or *On the Other Side of the Lake*, sits between a thriller and nature writing. A team of researchers works beside a high mountain lake on the edge of a reserve closed to people. Strange signs pile up and a body is found. Paola, a photographer, chooses to stay on alone, and a few months later she disappears too. The narrator sets out to follow her trail. Prudhomme won the Prix Femina in 2019, and Jaenada won it in 2017, which means two of the four finalists are former Femina winners who have both built their new books around a woman who is gone. ### Book: De l'autre côté du lac By Sylvain Prudhomme Paola, a photographer in her forties, disappears one winter in a protected mountain nature reserve. The narrator, who met her only briefly, retraces her last months to find out what happened to her. A finalist for the 2026 Prix Goncourt. [Fnac](https://www.fnac.com/SearchResult/ResultList.aspx?Search=9782707358233) The shortlist closes the most unusual season in the prize's recent history. On 25th September, the Académie removed *C'était ça ou mourir* (*It Was Either That or Die*), a bestselling debut by the Haitian-Canadian writer Thélyson Orélien, from its first list of 16. Its statement cited plagiarism in his earlier writing and several analyses suggesting the novel was very largely produced by artificial intelligence, and said the Académie wanted to send a clear message that it does not endorse writing generated with AI. Orélien denies using AI. The jury is also voting with nine members instead of ten. Didier Decoin, the 1977 winner who led the Académie from 2020 to 2024, died on 5th August. If you read only one before Tuesday, choose by mood. Pick Jaenada for a long winter investigation, Haenel if school shaped you, Mélois for a single evening and Prudhomme if you want snow, silence and a mystery. We will update this page with the winner on Tuesday afternoon. **Where to buy the books** - *L'inconnue du quai de Javel* by Philippe Jaenada (Flammarion): [Amazon France](https://www.amazon.fr/s?k=9782080490896) - *La solitude des professeurs est infinie* by Yannick Haenel (Gallimard): [Amazon France](https://www.amazon.fr/s?k=9782073161925) - *Choses que je croyais perdues* by Clémentine Mélois (L'Arbalète/Gallimard): [Amazon France](https://www.amazon.fr/s?k=9782073162854) - *De l'autre côté du lac* by Sylvain Prudhomme (Minuit): [Amazon France](https://www.amazon.fr/s?k=9782707358233) - *C'était ça ou mourir* by Thélyson Orélien (Grasset): [Amazon France](https://www.amazon.fr/s?k=C%27etait+ca+ou+mourir+Orelien)