Boualem Sansal Wins Renaudot Prize Amid Imprisonment in Algiers

Imprisoned in Algiers for nearly a year on charges of “undermining national integrity,” Algerian writer Boualem Sansal received the 2025 Renaudot Prize for his novel Vivre. Le compte à rebours, as juries of both the Goncourt and Renaudot Prizes expressed strong support on November 4, 2025.

The Goncourt jury, which awarded this year’s top honor to Laurent Mauvignier for La Maison vide (The Empty House), publicly showed solidarity with Sansal by wearing badges reading Je suis Sansal (“I am Sansal”). It was a symbolic gesture the jurors had already made when the author was first imprisoned.

Meanwhile, the Renaudot jury unanimously granted Boualem Sansal their “paperback” award for Vivre. Le compte à rebours (Living: The Countdown, Folio), hailing him as a “volcanic stylist.” The Renaudot Prize, established in 1926 as a counterpart to the Goncourt, celebrates outstanding literary works each November.

In Vivre. Le compte à rebours, released in May 2025, Sansal returns to speculative fiction. The novel follows Paolo, a mathematics teacher chosen by a mysterious higher power to help decide which humans will survive Earth’s impending destruction within 780 days and journey to a new planet.

Since his arrest, Boualem Sansal has received growing international recognition. He was awarded the Cino Del Duca World Prize in May 2025 for his defense of freedom of expression and was later elected to Belgium’s Royal Academy of French Language and Literature, underscoring his enduring influence across the Francophone world.