Alexis Jenni wins Goncourt, France’s premier literary award

lexis Jenni won France’s most prestigious literary prize, the 108-year-old Prix Goncourt, for “L’Art francais de la guerre.”

The winner -- who gets a check for a symbolic 10 euros ($13.67) and an almost certain boost in sales -- was announced to a crowd of journalists at Paris restaurant Drouant. The 10- member jury, which meets at the establishment once a month, then retreated inside for its customary gastronomic lunch.

The finalists were Sorj Chalandon, for “Retour a Killybegs” (published by Grasset), Jenni, for “L’Art francais de la guerre” (Gallimard), Carole Martinez, for “Du Domaine des Murmures” (Gallimard) and Lyonel Trouillot, “La belle amour humaine” (Actes Sud).

First awarded in 1903, the Prix Goncourt has honored authors such as Marcel Proust (1919), Andre Malraux (1933), Simone de Beauvoir (1954) and Marguerite Duras (1984).

Last year Michel Houellebecq won the prize for “La Carte et le Territoire,” in which an artist encounters a famous novelist named Houellebecq and helps a police inspector solve a vicious crime.