Paris (France) (AFP) – Franco-Palestinian writer Karim Kattan was recognized on Monday with a literary award in France, the Wepler-Fondation La Poste prize, for his novel “Septentrionale”, published by Élyzad editions, based in Tunisia.

Published on: 09/11/2026 - 15:48

Aged 37, Karim Kattan was born in Jerusalem and raised in Bethlehem, in the West Bank, where his family is from.

After studying at the French high school in Jerusalem, he moved to France, where he obtained nationality, and studied cinema and English.

Released in August, “Neptentrionale”, his third novel, is a feverish road movie in an undetermined country “in the grip of the apocalypse” where Joseph and Maryam meet on their way to escape. This book has already won the Les Inrockuptibles prize for the 2026 French novel.

Translated into around ten languages, it is published by the independent Elyzad editions, created in Tunisia in 2005 to "give the voice of novelists from the south", originating from Lebanon, Morocco, Togo or France.

The prize awarded by the Parisian café Le Wepler and the Fondation La Poste aims to reward “romantic risk-taking and a demanding style”, and its winner receives 10,000 euros.

The jury, composed in particular of booksellers, also awarded a special prize, granted "to a prodigiously unclassifiable literary UFO", to "Pute virgin" (Inculte/Actes Sud), by Dominique Sigaud.

© 2026 AFP

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