True crime novel about 1949 murder of Paris life model wins France’s biggest literary prize
Summary
Philippe Jaenada won France’s Prix Goncourt for L’Inconnue du quai de Javel, a true-crime book about the unsolved 1949 murder of Louise Cansot. The book revisits the investigation and presents a more sympathetic portrait of Cansot, whose reputation was damaged by police conclusions and press reports at the time.Key Facts
- The Académie Goncourt announced Jaenada as this year’s winner on Tuesday.
- Cansot, a 29-year-old from Brittany, was found dead on 7 September 1949.
- Police never identified Cansot’s killer.
- Cansot worked as a life model for artists in Paris’s Montparnasse district.
- The original police report described Cansot as a woman of “ill repute,” and newspaper reports speculated she was a sex worker or drug addict.
- Jaenada’s 530-page book suggests a possible murderer and seeks to correct the earlier portrayal of Cansot.
- The prize’s longlist had been overshadowed by allegations that a different book was almost entirely written by AI; its author denied the allegation.
- Jaenada had previously been shortlisted for the Prix Goncourt four times.
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