Default Congolese writer Alain Mabanckou awarded Monaco's Prince Pierre Prize

Pierre Assouline, Pierre Mertens, Philippe Sollers, Jerome Garcin, Andrei Makine, Philippe Jaccottet, Marie-Claire Blais, Pascal Quignard, J M G Le Clezio and Pierre Combescot have received the prize, just in the last 15 years. Older laureates include Francoise Sagan, 3D Rendering Services Patrick Modiano, Leopold Sedar Senghor, Anne Hebert, Marguerite Yourcenar, Eugene Ionesco, Hector Bianciotti, Herve Bazin, Jean Giono and Julien Green, among others.
To sit alone in the lamplight with a book spread out before you, and hold intimate converse with men of unseen generations, such is a pleasure beyond compare.