The 2026 Goncourt Prize awarded to Philippe Jaenada for L’inconnue du quai de Javel

The verdict is in. From the top of the staircase of the Drouant restaurant in Paris, in front of a crowded audience of journalists, Philippe Claudel announced this Tuesday late in the morning the winner of the 2026 Goncourt Prize. It is Philippe Jaenada for L'inconnue du quai de Javel.

He wins a symbolic check for ten euros, but for what return! The novel La Maison vide by Laurent Mauvignier, crowned last year in the first round by six votes to four, sold more than 637,000 copies. And above all, it is a beautiful piece of literary glory, the Goncourt being the most prestigious of the many autumn prizes. No surprise, however, for the crowned publishing house. The four competing authors were all published by Madrigall, owned by Gallimard.

This 124th edition of Goncourt was unlike any other. The Parisian literary world is still stunned by the revelations of massive use of AI in Thélyson Orélien's It Was That or Dying, which appeared in September in the first lists of Goncourt, Renaudot, Femina and Médicis. Let us also note the death on August 5 of Didier Decoin, secretary general from 1995 to 2020 then president of Goncourt from 2020 to 2024.

The jury, made up of nine members, has since been chaired by Philippe Claudel. It includes Christine Angot, Pierre Assouline, Tahar Ben Jelloun, Pascal Bruckner, Paule Constant, Françoise Chandernagor, Camille Laurens and Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt.