American Author's Nazi Novel Wins France's Literary Prize

For an American to win a French Literary Prize is most unusual and a great honour. Of course he is not a run-of-the-mill American.
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This is what I call an international man. I have met a few, all of them are most interesting. In Saint-Paul-de-Vence I met one at a bus stop; a most charming Jewish man from Brooklyn. He spoke a flawless French and planned to settle in France permanently.
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Jonathan Littel sounds to me like an idealist/socialist/wonderful person.
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American Author's Nazi Novel Wins France's Top Literary Prize
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American Jonathan Littell, won France's top literary prize, the Goncourt, for his French novel "Les Bienveillantes" about a fictional German SS officer's memoirs.
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Littell first drafted "Les Bienveillantes", whose title means "The Well-Meaning Ones" or "The Kindly Ones", over four months while living in Moscow. The book is a first-person fictional account, without remorse, of the Nazi extermination of the Jews by a former German SS officer.
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The prize jury said Littell's debut novel easily triumphed over a field of three other works from French authors with a 7-3 vote.
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The book is already a sensation in France, where it sits atop the best-seller list with more than 250,000 copies sold.
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Littell, the 39-year-old son of US journalist and spy novel writer Robert Littell, was not present to receive the honor.
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His French editor said he remained at his home in Barcelona, Spain, and transmitted a message saying "he prefers to stay out of the limelight."
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Littell "is very happy and he accepts this prize with pleasure," added Antoine Gallimard, of the Gallimard publishing house, stressing that no form of disrespect was intended by his absence.
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"He has no time for publicity, partly out of shyness, but also
because he believes literature is not an entertainment industry.
What is important is the book itself," Gallimard said, adding that
another 150,000 copies would now be printed.
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http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,2227321,00.html