Independent foreign fiction prize goes to Philippe Claudel
Judges applaud Bafta-winning French writer Philippe Claudel for Brodeck's Report, a 'convincing fable of persecution, resistance and survival'
Alison Flood , guardian.co.uk, Friday 14 May 2010

The French writer Philippe Claudel has won the Independent foreign fiction prize for Brodeck's Report, his story of a murder in a post-war French village.
Claudel, who directed and wrote the Bafta-winning French film Il y a longtemps que je t'aime (I've Loved You So Long), starring Kristin Scott Thomas, is the second French author to win the prize. He saw off contenders from India, the Congo and Europe to take the £10,000 award, which is shared equally with his American translator John Cullen.
Brodeck's Report was described by Boyd Tonkin, the chair of the judging panel and literary editor of the Independent, as a "work of art" which "finds a bewitchingly original way to talk about the tragedies of modern history". Set in a small village in post-war France, the book tells the story of Brodeck, a man who spent years in a camp during the war and who now journeys into the mountains every day to collect data on the natural environment. When a stranger who has upset the balance of village life is murdered, Brodeck is told to write an account of the events which led to his death.
Full report at The Guardian.