--- title: François-Henri Désérable Wins the 100th Prix Renaudot for Le Palais, a Wine Novel Inspired by a Real Forger description: François-Henri Désérable wins the 100th Prix Renaudot for Le Palais, a wine novel inspired by forger Rudy Kurniawan. The vote, the plot and the essay winners. author: Dr Marina Nani (Editor-in-Chief) date: 2026-11-04T09:00:00.060Z updated: 2026-11-04T09:00:00.094Z canonical: https://thequantumoflight.com/article/prix-renaudot-2026-francois-henri-deserable image: https://cdn.nanimediahouse.com/pexels-2954929.webp categories: Literary Culture content_type: News region: France publication: The Quantum of Light about: - type: Person name: François-Henri Désérable description: French writer, winner of the Prix Renaudot 2026 for Le Palais. jobTitle: Writer --- François-Henri Désérable won the Prix Renaudot 2026 on Tuesday 3rd November for *Le Palais* (Gallimard), a 416-page adventure novel that makes wine its hero. The prize turns 100 this year, and the jury announced its choice at the Drouant restaurant in Paris straight after [the Prix Goncourt went to Philippe Jaenada](https://thequantumoflight.com/article/prix-goncourt-2026-philippe-jaenada) for *L'Inconnue du quai de Javel*. ### Book: Le Palais By François-Henri Désérable Novel by François-Henri Désérable. Winner of the Prix Renaudot 2026. [Decitre](https://www.decitre.fr/livres/le-palais-9782073159212.html) Désérable took six of the ten jury votes. David Djaïz took the other four for *La Méthode* (Stock). Frédéric Beigbeder chaired the jury this year to mark the centenary. 'I did not expect it. I believed until the last moment that I would not get the prize,' Désérable told AFP. He dedicated the award to winegrowers, whom he called artists who turn grapes into pleasure. ## Le Palais by François-Henri Désérable Arun Kumar, the hero of *Le Palais*, is an Indian orphan adopted in 1998 by a couple who run a restaurant in Burgundy. He has what the French call a *palais absolu*, an absolute palate: a memory for aromas so exact that it borders on the miraculous. After brilliant studies in oenology, he takes that gift to New York high society. The story travels from the slums of Delhi to the cellars of Burgundy, the Marquesas Islands and the towers of Manhattan, and Gallimard presents Arun as an outlaw genius whose crimes you can taste. Désérable has said that, as far as he knew, no great novel had ever made wine its main subject. The idea came to him in 2020, during a stay in Burgundy after the first lockdown. He then spent five years learning the cycle of the vine, the craft of winemaking and what makes a good barrel. He says he now drinks a great deal more and a great deal better, and would like to open a wine bar one day. French critics have read the book as a story about inequality, inheritance, ambition and revenge as much as about grapes. Livres Hebdo set him in the line of Zola for his learning and of Dumas for his love of the improbable. If you read French, the technical vocabulary of tasting never gets in the way of the plot. ## Rudy Kurniawan and the Wine Forgery Behind the Novel Désérable drew part of Arun Kumar's story from Rudy Kurniawan, an Indonesian wine connoisseur who became a forger of rare wines and was sentenced by a court in the United States in 2014. Désérable has described Arun Kumar as a boy who tries to take revenge on his own karma. ## François-Henri Désérable From Ice Hockey to Gallimard Désérable was born in 1987 and grew up in Amiens. He was still playing professional ice hockey when Gallimard published his first book, *Tu montreras ma tête au peuple*, set during the French Revolution, at the age of 25. *Évariste* followed, a novel about the mathematician Évariste Galois, then *Un certain M. Piekielny*, built on a childhood promise Romain Gary made to a neighbour. *Mon maître et mon vainqueur* won the Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française in 2021. *L'Usure d'un monde*, his account of a journey across Iran, won the Prix Nicolas Bouvier in 2023. His books have been translated into more than a dozen languages. ## The Prix Renaudot Centenary and Its Goncourt Rivalry Ten journalists and art critics created the Renaudot in 1926 while they waited for the Goncourt jury to finish its deliberations. They named it after Théophraste Renaudot, who founded *La Gazette*, the first French newspaper, in 1631. The first winner was Armand Lunel, for *Nicolo-Peccavi ou l'Affaire Dreyfus à Carpentras*. The Renaudot is still announced on the same day and in the same room as the Goncourt, and it can never go to the same book. The jurors always keep a second choice ready in case the Goncourt takes their first. In 1971, Jacques Laurent's *Les Bêtises* was the Renaudot jury's first choice, but it won the Goncourt, so the Renaudot went to Pierre-Jean Rémy for *Le Sac du palais d'été*. ## The AI Row Over Thélyson Orélien The centenary season also had to deal with Thélyson Orélien. In September, the Académie Goncourt removed his novel *C'était ça ou mourir* (Grasset) from its longlist after claims that artificial intelligence had written most of it, alongside plagiarism allegations about earlier work. The Renaudot jurors kept the book in their second selection, then left it out of the final list. The organisers of the Prix Renaudot des lycéens in Loudun withdrew it too. Orélien denies using AI and says he began writing the novel in 2017. ### More From the 2026 French Prize Season - [L'inconnue du quai de Javel](https://www.fnac.com/SearchResult/ResultList.aspx?Search=9782080490896) by Philippe Jaenada - C'était ça ou mourir by Thélyson Orélien ## Prix Renaudot Essay and Paperback Winners The jury split the essay prize between Jean-Paul Enthoven, for *Dictionnaire amoureux du bonheur* (Plon), and Christophe Ono-dit-Biot, for *L'Odyssée de l'Odyssée* (Grasset). The Renaudot Poche, for paperbacks, went to the journalist Jean-Christophe Buisson for *Complètement à l'Est !* (Perrin). The 2026 winners succeed Adélaïde de Clermont-Tonnerre, who won the novel prize in 2025 for *Je voulais vivre*, and Alfred de Montesquiou, who won the essay prize for *Le Crépuscule des hommes*. Around 400 secondary school pupils will name the Prix Renaudot des lycéens on 17th November. ## Frequently Asked Questions **Q: What is the Renaudot prize?** The Prix Renaudot, or Prix Théophraste-Renaudot, is one of France's leading literary awards for a novel written in French. Ten journalists and critics founded it in 1926, and it is announced every November at the Drouant restaurant in Paris, on the same day as the Prix Goncourt. Since 1996 it has also had an essay category. **Q: What is the Renaudot prize worth?** The Renaudot carries no cash award. Its value lies in the sales and attention it brings to the winning novel in bookshops, in France and in translation abroad. **Q: What is the most prestigious literary prize in France?** The Prix Goncourt, founded in 1903, is France's oldest and best-known literary prize, and its winner receives a symbolic cheque of €10. The Renaudot is widely seen as the second most important. The other major autumn prizes are the Prix Femina, the Prix Médicis, the Prix Interallié and the Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française. **Q: What literary prizes are awarded in November 2026?** The Prix Médicis opened the first week of November, and the Goncourt and Renaudot followed on 3rd November. The Prix Femina follows on 4th November in Paris and the Booker Prize on 9th November in London. The Prix Renaudot des lycéens is named on 17th November and the Prix Goncourt des lycéens on 26th November. ### More From the French Autumn Prizes - [Philippe Jaenada Wins the Prix Goncourt 2026 for Reopening a 1949 Murder on the Banks of the Seine](https://thequantumoflight.com/article/prix-goncourt-2026-philippe-jaenada) - [Philippe Vasset Wins the Prix Médicis 2026 for Two Years on Foot Beneath France's High-Voltage Lines](https://thequantumoflight.com/article/philippe-vasset-prix-medicis-2026)