Novelist Carole Martinez, winner of 2011 Prix Goncourt des Lycéens, talks to Monegasque pupils

©Manu Vitali - Centre de Presse

After receiving the Prince Pierre Foundation Discovery Grant in Monaco in 2001 for her first novel, Le Coeur cousu (published in English as The Threads of the Heart), and five years after being awarded the Prix Goncourt des Lycéens for Du domaine des murmures (published in English as The Castle of Whispers), Carole Martinez returned to Monaco on 19 and 20 May. Six classes from the Principality’s various lycées had the opportunity to meet her.

During her time in Monaco, Ms Martinez was invited into classrooms at Monaco’s Vocational and Catering School, Lycée François d’Assise Nicolas Barré and Lycée Albert I. The pupils, who had all read and studied Le Coeur cousu or Du domaine des murmures with their teachers, were eager to question the novelist about her work, which combines an imaginative world with emotion and poetry.

The sessions were part of the programme of cultural activities offered by Monaco’s Department of Education, Youth and Sport.

Carole Martinez, a literature teacher by profession who now devotes herself to writing, charmed the pupils with her natural ease and likability, and impressed them with her willingness to engage and talent as a storyteller.

It was a great opportunity, instilling in pupils a desire to read... and to write!