Contacted by Le Nouvelliste, Yanick Lahens expressed herself in these terms: “I am the first to be surprised,” confided the author, still in shock at her selection. “It is a book I was very unsure about,” she admitted, “written in Haiti under very difficult conditions, on a subject far removed from France, and published by a small publishing house.” “The news is obviously pleasing,” added the winner of the 2014 Prix Femina for her novel Bain de lune. Asked about the humility that characterizes her despite her notoriety, the author of Guillaume et Nathalie believes that “Discretion is preferable in a country and a world where noise and fury predominate.”

The former professor at the École normale supérieure (ENS) of Port-au-Prince, who says she is surprised by this first selection for the Prix Goncourt for the novel, also pointed out that she had “received, against all odds, the Prix Femina in 2014.”