Newmag Publishing Presents Two New Books on Armenia TV’s “Good Morning” Program (Video)

Gaël Faye’s novel Jacaranda was nominated for last year’s Goncourt Literary Prize and received the Goncourt National Jury Prize, decided by juries in 25 countries. Nicolas Mathieu’s novel And Their Children After Them won the prestigious Goncourt Prize in 2018. The Armenian editions of both books were presented during Newmag’s Francofest 2025 international festival.

Jacaranda also won the Armenian National Jury Prize of the Goncourt. Its translator, Taguhi Blbulyan, emphasized that the book recounts the genocide of the Tutsi at the end of the 20th century.

“When we say the novel is about genocide, one might expect it to be overwhelmingly painful. But Jacaranda is also a very tender book. Gaël Faye presents love and gentleness alongside trauma. He is not only a writer, but also a slam singer, a genre related to French rap, and the book carries that musicality, with its rhythm of short and very long sentences, creating a lyrical style.”

The national jury of Goncourt Armenia also included Taguhi Blbulyan’s students, who unanimously selected Jacaranda as the winning novel. Blbulyan believes that their choice is closely related to Armenian collective memory.

“The students valued not only the topic, but also the lyricism of the book. Their unanimous vote, I am certain, is connected to our history as a people who have experienced genocide. The novel raises profound questions, how to speak about genocide, how to break silence, whether to forget, forgive, or live with memory. The Rwandan government once forced its citizens to forget the genocide. All these dilemmas are reflected in the characters’ experiences. These questions are relevant to us as well.”

The second featured book, Nicolas Mathieu’s And Their Children After Them, explores the industrial crisis in 1990s France, unemployment, young people’s boredom, first love, and the challenges of a society in transition. According to translator Lilit Bleyan, the Armenian and French 1990s share striking similarities. The story unfolds not in glamorous Paris but in a fictional, dull, industrial town. Through this backdrop, the author depicts the life of an ordinary person at the brink of major societal change.

“French teenagers in the novel try to find themselves in a time of upheaval. Their parents, like ours, had lived in a more stable world, one that suddenly collapsed. In that sense, the story resonates with our reality. The book shows abandoned factories, workers who were no longer needed, shattered dreams. There is also a lot of boredom in the book, something we didn’t have in our own 1990s. We didn’t have time to be bored; we were living through war and immense political and social shifts.”

According to Bleyan, part of the novel’s success lies in the sense of nostalgia readers feel for those years , for their own youth or childhood. The title, And Their Children After Them, also reflects the novel’s message: that many of its characters often accept their circumstances rather than fight against them, much like their parents did.