Lucie Rico Wins the 2026 Prix de Flore

Livres Hebdo reported that Lucie Rico has won the 2026 prix de Flore for Mais que fait ce sang sur le pull de Jennifer? (P.O.L). She succeeds Rebeka Warrior, whom the magazine called one of the major figures of contemporary feminism. The prize was given on 4 November at the Café de Flore, in Saint-Germain-des-Prés, the same report said.

Rico won with seven votes to five for Iman Ahmed and Abdallah superstar (Actes Sud), Livres Hebdo reported. This year's selection was 100 percent women, the magazine reported, an exception among the autumn literary prizes. With Anne Godard, winner of the prix Décembre, Rico becomes one of the few French women writers rewarded this season, Livres Hebdo reported. Women account for 10,6 percent of Goncourt laureates and 19 percent of Renaudot laureates, Livres Hebdo reported.

The novel

This is Rico's third novel. Livres Hebdo listed it among the season's most noticed titles, in that report. It made the Médicis, Femina, Wepler and Décembre shortlists, and sales are above 15 500 — ahead of either of her earlier books, Livres Hebdo reported.

The title points back to Giuliano Carnimeo's 1972 film Perché quelle strane gocce di sangue sul corpo di Jennifer?, Livres Hebdo reported. What Rico does with thriller form, the magazine wrote, is fold it inward: thought, obsession, and the struggle to tell what is real.

Her heroine, Jennifer, had been leading a fairly satisfying life until she reads an unfinished sentence, Livres Hebdo reported: "Devant Autant en emporte le vent, Vivien Leigh et Clark Gable vont s'embrasser quand quelqu'un appuie sur pause et…" She draws on her memories to fill the blank that follows, but obsession wears the logic away and the truth bends, the magazine wrote.

The writer

Born in Perpignan, Lucie Rico is a director and screenwriter, Livres Hebdo reported. She holds a licence in cinema and lettres modernes appliquées, and a master's in media and transmedia from CELSA. She spent several years in publishing and new media, then began creating her own work in 2016, the same report said. She has made documentaries and two fiction films, Plein noir and The Big Shake.

In 2020 she published her first novel, Le Chant du poulet sous vide, Livres Hebdo reported. It follows Paule, a young woman who, after her mother's death, finds herself running a farm and writing biographies of chickens. That book won the prix du roman d'écologie in 2021, and in 2020 the prix littéraire du Cheval Blanc and the prix Coup de cœur des Vendanges littéraires, Livres Hebdo reported.

In 2022 her second novel, GPS (P.O.L), was published, Livres Hebdo reported. It borrows thriller conventions and is told in the second person. Ariane, a young woman in social and personal difficulty, lives shut away until her childhood friend Sandrine invites her to an engagement party. When Sandrine disappears, her geolocation keeps moving, even past the place where a burned body is found. The novel received a special mention for the prix Wepler in 2022, the magazine reported.

The prize

The prix de Flore was founded in 1994 by Carole Chrétiennot and Frédéric Beigbeder, Livres Hebdo reported. Each year it rewards a young, daring writer of promising talent. The winner receives a cheque of 6 150 euros and, for a year, a daily glass of Pouilly-fumé engraved with her name, the same report said. The first edition had Françoise Sagan as its marraine.

The jury is Frédéric Beigbeder, Jacques Braunstein (editor in chief of Livres Hebdo), Manuel Carcassonne, Carole Chrétiennot, Michèle Fitoussi, François Reynaert, Jean-Pierre Saccani, Bertrand de Saint-Vincent, Christophe Tison, Philippe Vandel, Jean-René van der Plaetsen and Arnaud Viviant, Livres Hebdo reported.

A year ago the Flore went to Rebeka Warrior and Toutes les vies, from Stock, Livres Hebdo reported. Nearly 45 000 exemplaires of that novel have sold, the same report said.

Photo: Lucie Rico at Le livre à Metz in April 2023. Photo by Gérald Garitan, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.