Jean-Baptiste Andrea

Jean-Baptiste Andrea is a French novelist and filmmaker born in 1971. He began his career writing and directing films before turning to fiction. His debut novel Ma reine (Queen) won the Prix du roman FNAC and the Prix Landerneau in 2017 and announced the arrival of a major storytelling talent. Andrea's fiction is characterized by rich atmosphere, historical sweep, and a gift for creating memorable, complex protagonists. He writes across time and place, from wartime Europe to 20th-century Italy, always with a strong narrative drive and a concern for the moral dimensions of his characters' choices. Veiller sur elle (Watch Over Her), his 2023 Prix Goncourt winner, is a sweeping historical novel spanning most of the twentieth century. It follows Mimo, a brilliant sculptor of humble origins, and Viola, the aristocratic woman he loves but can never possess. The novel is partly narrated from within a cloister, where an aged Mimo contemplates a final sculpture and a life of unfulfilled passion. The novel was a major commercial and critical success in France, selling hundreds of thousands of copies. It was praised for its narrative ambition, its gorgeous prose, and its meditation on art, class, and unrequited love.