On Thursday, November 13, the legendary private club of Parisian nightlife awarded the 4th Castel Prize to Vanessa Schneider for her novel “La peau dure” (Thick Skin), published by Flammarion. It thus honors an author who “would have been right at home at Jean Castel’s table.”
Vanessa Schneider, novelist and journalist, succeeds Grégoire Bouillier, winner in 2024 for “Le syndrome de l’Orangerie,” a novel about the painter Jean Monet, also published by Flammarion. Some authors are lucky, but so are some publishers!
“If I had told my father that I had won the Prix Castel, he would surely have frowned and said, ‘Castel, like the nightclub? But that’s good, you love to dance!’ I have tried to present this brilliant and dark, magnificent and terrible father to you in this book, in my own way, with all his ambiguities, but also with love. And I thank you for embracing this father, who was unlike any other! I began writing when he died three years ago. I can think of no better way to celebrate him than to be here in this temple of celebration, where so many beautiful minds have passed through. Let’s drink, dance, and laugh! Long live literature, long live life. I love you all!“ said Vanessa Schneider with emotion and humor on the dance floor podium, after thanking the jury, Castel, her editors, her friends, and her children.
This “young prize,” co-founded in 2022 by Carole Chrétiennot and the owners of Castel, represented during the evening of November 13 by Grégoire Chertok, the investment banker, has established a joyful ceremony. First, the jury members enjoyed posing in front of the red-lacquered Parisian facade at 15 Rue Princesse in Saint-Germain-des-Prés. The air was mild for November. Cameras flashed to capture the family photo. Reflecting the spirit of the prize, the jury was a trendy, Parisian mix of ten flamboyant personalities from the worlds of literature, journalism, cinema, and interior design. A fine line-up consisting of Emma Becker, Claire Berest, Vincent Daré, Etienne Gernelle, Eva Ionesco, Marc Lambron, Justine Lévy, Jean-Noël Pancrazi, Abnousse Shalmani, and Gaël Tchakaloff.
Unlike other literary awards, there is no president who appears at the top of a majestic staircase to reveal the identity of the lucky winner. In the basement of the nightclub, everyone tries to hold their breath. Hand-picked guests listen intently for the announcement of the Castel Prize.
“Who will succeed Sagan, Gainsbourg, Kersauson, and Guy Bedos at Jean Castel’s table tonight?” asks Etienne Gernelle, editor-in-chief of Le Point, with a twinkle in his eye. Writer Julie Lévy has the honor of announcing Vanessa Schneider as the winner of the fourth edition for “La peau dure”. “We are good people. Vanessa is sometimes our friend. We were afraid of ‘cronyism,’ something a little incestuous. Nevertheless, Vanessa, your novel is the best of the season. It’s not friendship that makes a good novel. It’s a good novel that makes a good novel!“ Gernelle added: ”This novel is very, very well written… Michel Schneider, the central character, had an incredible culture with his dark sides, his faults, love… the harshness of life…”
The most generous literary prize in Paris
The winner receives a prize of €5,000 and a one-year membership card for Castel. She has the privilege of dining as often as she likes at the famous institution with the person of her choice. Without a doubt, it is the most generous literary prize in Paris! An evening marked by red and black. Mélinda Hélie, the CEO of Castel, always stunningly beautiful, presents Vanessa Schneider with a check as large as the bouquet of flowers she is holding in her arms. Carole Chrétiennot, co-founder of the Prize, presents the winning book to the cameras, alongside Grégoire Chertok, representative of the owners of Castel.
For the occasion, the club has set up buffets on all three floors, and champagne is flowing freely. Guests feel as if they are being welcomed into a private mansion, strolling from one room to another, from the basement to the smoking room. If they weren’t regulars, they would notice Jean-Philippe Delhomme’s large colorful fresco featuring 20th-century celebrities and Pierre Rey’s striking carpet with phallic designs at the bar… provided they didn’t step on their neighbors’ toes, as the Happy Few crowd was so dense.
In a sophisticated, trendy, and friendly atmosphere, the evening brings together writers, journalists, personalities from the arts world, members, and friends of the venue. Among the guests, we bumped into Grégoire Bouillier, Sylvie Testud, Valérie Trierweiler, Dan Franck, Hubert de Malherbe, Christophe Rioux, Raphaëlle Bacqué, Edouard Carmignac, Nicolas d’Estienne d’Orves, and many others.
Why deny yourself the pleasure? Castel is reviving the electric parties of yesteryear, in a festive spirit… and still as elitist as ever. It is undoubtedly one of the highlights of the literary awards season.
We make our way to the library on the second floor, where it is customary for a plaque engraved with the winner’s name to join the previous ones. They are neatly lined up with the books displayed on the blood-red shelves among erotic publications and trinkets. This is how we meet Vanessa Schneider, who immediately stands out for her sunny personality. A journalist, essayist, and novelist, the winner is a senior reporter at Le Monde. She has published several essays and six novels, including “Tu t’appelais Maria Schneider” (Your Name Was Maria Schneider) published by Grasset in 2018, which has been translated into several languages and adapted for the cinema. It is a moving portrait of her cousin Maria, an actress and daughter of her father’s older sister, who lived a life of sex and violence behind closed doors during the filming of Last Tango in Paris.
A father whose life has been scarred by lies, incest, and poverty
Vanessa Schneider confides in us, away from the hustle and bustle in a corner of the library: “In this latest novel, the portrait of this atypical father is also the portrait of a generation known as the sixties generation or baby boomers who lived through exceptional years. They did not experience war or unemployment. They experienced sexual freedom without the ravages of AIDS. A blessed generation that allowed itself everything. My father was the representative of this generation. This is not a book about settling scores or putting someone on trial. It is a book about love; I adored my father while being lucid about his limitations, his weaknesses, his harshness, and I hide nothing about his dark side. It was difficult to grow up in the shadow of this father who was like a large, imposing oak tree. My mother was a submissive woman who stayed at home. It took me a long time to find my feet, to find my place and to feel confident and reassured about who I could be in this world…”
It is true that Vanessa Schneider had “material” to concoct an autobiographical novel. Her father, Michel Schneider, was a senior civil servant, psychoanalyst, and writer, a well-known intellectual figure in Parisian circles. He died in 2022, at the age of 78, after battling cancer.
Through this book, the author attempts to understand the personality of her extraordinary father. She sensitively unravels the thread of his life, which was marred from childhood by lies, incest, and poverty. A multifaceted figure, Michel Schneider leaned toward the extreme Maoist left; he was accepted into the ENA and began a brilliant career.
While rising to the highest levels, he often refused to comply with social norms. He resigned from his position as director of music and dance at the Ministry of Culture, believing that Jack Lang was acting solely on the basis of his friendships and not in the collective interest. Seeking to succeed Bertrand Poirot-Delpech, he was not elected to the Académie Française.
This book also tells the story of the generation that took advantage of May 1968 to “turn the tables” and seize power. Many of these men became progressive, libertarian, and selfish.
An unconventional prize in the spirit of Saint-Germain-des-Prés
The Prix Castel is unique. It honors an author whose writing, in its own way, perpetuates the spirit of a place and a time. It is the spirit of Jean Castel’s table, who passed away in 1999, where conversation was celebrated as an art, freedom as a style, and lightness as depth.
This prize pays tribute to the Germanopratin spirit that still exists, combining a taste for celebration and lively conversation, culture and humor, irreverence and elegance.
It is not a question of rewarding a novel about partying or nightlife, but a work imbued with this unique vitality, this way of writing and thinking with wit, panache, and a smile.
The winner of the Castel Prize is someone who, today, would naturally have found their place at this table for the pleasure of conversation until the end of the night.
In its first edition, the Castel Prize was awarded in 2022 to Catherine Millet for “Commencements” published by Flammarion. The writer caused a scandal with “La vie sexuelle de Catherine M.” published by Éditions du Seuil in 2001, a novel that has since been translated into 44 languages. In 2023, the Castel Prize was awarded to Arthur Dreyfus for his strange and disturbing novel “La troisième Main” (P.O.L), and in 2024 to Grégoire Bouillier for his original and poetic story “Le syndrome de l’Orangerie” (Flammarion).
“There’s a lot of work behind this prize, because we have to read around forty books before selecting ten,” says writer Claire Berest, a member of the jury. “We call each other to give each other good reading advice.”
The ten selected books were presented on September 17. The second selection, on October 15, narrowed it down to five novels… all of which, of course, are worth reading.
Vanessa Schneider’s book was in competition with novels by Julie Brafman, “Yann dans la nuit” (Flammarion), François Gagey, ‘Combustions’ (Albin Michel), and Cécile Guilbert, “Feux sacrés “ (Grasset).
Tonight, at Castel’s, the night begins like a novel… An uninhibited party with the cream of the French intelligentsia. Everyone has fun on every floor until dawn.
Read also > The 41st ”Goncourt des animaux” awarded to Cédric Sapin-Defour
Featured photo: In front of Castel’s red lacquered facade, the cheerful jury with Emma Becker, Claire Berest, Vincent Darré, Etienne Gernelle, Eva Ionesco, Marc Lambron, Justine Lévy, Jean-Noël Pancrazi, Abnousse Shalmani, Gaël Tchakaloff, and the winner of the 2025 Castel Prize, Vanessa Schneider (3rd from right) ©Photo Edouard Nguyen
