The French edition of the novel Death and The Gardener by Bulgarian writer and Booker prize winner Georgi Gospodinov was named among the three finalists for the Jean Monnet Prize for European Literature, the event’s managing team announced on Monday on Instagram. The novel was translated by Marie Vrinat‑Nikolov and published by Gallimard.
It will compete for the prize with Italian author Andrea Bajani’s novel The Anniversary which won the 2025 Strega Prize (Italy’s most prestigious literary award), and Irish writer Joseph O’Connor’s historical fiction novel The Ghosts of Rome.
The three works stood out from eight shortlisted by the jury in February.
The prize laureate will be named in September and awarded in November during the festival in Cognac, France.
Established in 1995, the Jean Monnet Prize for European Literature awards distinguished contemporary writers for literary works published the past year. The list of laureates include names such as Antonio Tabucchi, Jorge Semprun and William Boyd. Since its launch, the event has been sponsored by the Departmental Council of Charente, which provides a reward of EUR 5,000 for the winner.
The most recent winners of the Jean Monnet Prize for European Literature are Amelie Nothomb (2023), Ian McEwan (2024) and Pascal Quignard (2025).
/MR/
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