Paul Gasnier: How can you remain on the left when "his mother's death illustrates what the far right denounces"?
In his first book, "La Collision," which was on the initial list for the Prix Goncourt , the journalist investigates the death of his mother, who was mown down by a young delinquent on a motorcycle. A tragedy that could be exploited by the far right, but which offers a different account, rooted in the left.
Paul Gasnier, September 5, 2025 in Paris. ABEL LLAVALL-UBACH FOR “THE NEW OBS”
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"I'm very surprised, I really thought my book would fly under the radar." What might, in others, be false modesty, in him exudes a disarming sincerity. Electronic cigarette in hand, Paul Gasnier, 35, a journalist for "Quotidien," glances at the bookshelf that covers the wall of his apartment in the 10th arrondissement of Paris, a discreet witness to the path taken between the books he has read and the one the thirty-year-old is writing today. "La Collision," published at the end of August by Gallimard, has just been selected for the first list of the Prix Goncourt . When a friend told him the news by text, it was his mother who was the first thing he thought of.
She is at the heart of his book. On June 6, 2012, he was only 21 years old when he had to rush back from Bombay, where he was interning at the French consulate as part of his studies at Sciences-Po: at 54, his mother had just been mowed down by a barely adult repeat offender, on a full-blown…
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