Luxembourg novelist, playwright, journalist and poet Jean Portante has been awarded the Prix Servais 2016 for his novel "L'Architecture des temps instables".

Published by Phi in Differdange, "L'Architecture des temps instables" ("The Architecture of Unstable Times" in English) has been awarded the Prix Servais for 2016, which rewards the most significant literary work published during the previous year with a prize amount of €6,000.

"L'Architecture des temps instables by Jean Portante is a novel, the narrative of which is spread over three or four generations of a family of Italian origin scattered around the world, particularly Luxembourg," the jury's argumentation stated. "Over multiple narratives, the reader is guided through the intricacies of the intimate story of this family and through the maze of the European and world political geography of the Great War after the fall of the Berlin Wall. It exudes a complex fresco of the "unstable" twentieth century that leads to the present time which is equally important. The composition of the novel is characterised by a dense weaving narrative, mastered construction and sovereign writing which will captivate the reader. Through the Prix Servais 2016, the jury is honouring Jean Portante for this novel which opens the history of Luxembourg onto world history and which inscribed its characters into global political upheavals."

The Fondation Servais also awards an incentive prize for authors who have not yet published their literary work, on the basis of manuscripts. This year's prize was awarded to Luc Van den Bossche, a young voice of Luxembourg literature, for his poetry collection entitled "Sangs". The jury praised the collection's originality and poetic innovation.

The jury for the prix Servais 2016 was made up of Simone Beck; Jeanne E. Glesener; Odile Linden, Claude Mangen, Pierre Marson (Chairman); Jeanne Offermann; Alex Reuter, Aimée Schultz and Sébastian Thiltges. The prize has been running for 24 years, and Jean Portante previously won in 1994, the third edition of the prize.

A ceremony will be held at 19:30 on 4 July 2016 at the National Literature Centre.

 

Photo by Paolo Leoni/CNL (Jean Portante)