Charlie Hebdo Survivor Philippe Lancon wins Respected Paris Book Prize

When two militant gunmen burst into the headquarters of Charlie Hebdo magazine in 2015 it shook the entire world, and journalists and writers especially felt the price the journalists had paid for free speech.

Now three years later, journalist Philippe Lancon who was injured in the deadly attacks has won the Femina Prize, a prestigious award for his book, Le Lambeau, an account of the attack and how it has affected Lancon’s life.

Lancon collected the prize in Paris in what was his first public appearance since the attack, which saw him shot in the face, leaving him in a critical condition. Twelve people were killed, and a further eleven injured, including Lancon, in the attack.

Describing his injury in Le Lambeau, as translated by Robert McLiam Wilson for The Guardian newspaper, Lancon writes, “Instead of a chin and the right hand part of the lower lip there was, not a hole exactly but a crater of destroyed and hanging flesh that seemed to have been put there by the painting hand of a child, like a blotch of gouache on a picture.”

Right now Le Lambeau is only available in its original French language, but we are hoping an English version will follow.

Le Lambeau