Romanian literature: Lavinia Branişte’s novel Camping shortlisted for Prix Médicis étranger

Lavinia Braniște’s novel Camping has been shortlisted for this year’s Médicis Prize/ Prix Médicis, one of France’s top literary awards, in the Foreign Fiction category.

The novel has been translated into French by Sylvain Audet-Găinar and was published by Éditions des Syrtes.

Other Romanian writers previously shortlisted for the prize include Norman Manea, who won the Prix Médicis étranger in 2006 for Le Retour du hooligan : une vie/The Hooligan's Return and Mircea Cărtărescu, who was shortlisted for Solenoid in 2019 and Theodoros in 2024.

Lavinia Braniște was born in 1983 in Brăila. She studied foreign languages and literature in Cluj-Napoca and Bucharest. Her work includes the poetry volume Povești cu mine (2006), the short story volumes Cinci minute pe zi (2011) and Escapada (2014), the children’s series Rostogol, and the novels Interior zero (2016), S onia ridică mâna (2019), Mă găseşti când vrei (2021), and Camping (2025), among others.

The nominated novel, Camping, follows Sofia, a Romanian woman who lives and works at a campsite in Spain, as she plans her return home as she approaches retirement.

The awards will be handed out on November 2.

The jury of the Prix Médicis, chaired by playwright and novelist Pascale Roze, is composed of Marianne Alphant, Michel Braudeau, Marie Darrieussecq, Dominique Fernandez, Anne F. Garréta, Patrick Grainville, Andreï Makine, and Alain Veinstein. At the beginning of November, they vote by secret ballot for their chosen candidate until one of them obtains a majority. In the event of a tie, the president's vote counts double from the seventh round onward.

The Prix Médicis was founded in 1958 by Gala Barbisan and Jean-Pierre Giraudoux as a nod to “audacious and innovative literary works” by authors whose "fame does not yet match their talent.”