Mohamed Mbougar Sarr

Born on 20 June 1990 in Dakar, Mohamed Mbougar Sarr is a Senegalese novelist who writes in French. Educated at the Prytanée militaire in Saint-Louis, he moved to France for literary preparatory classes in Compiègne and then studied at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales. His first novel, "Terre ceinte", was followed by "Silence du chœur" (2017) and "De purs hommes" (2018), which confronts the persecution of homosexuality in Senegal. "La plus secrète mémoire des hommes", co-published in 2021 by Éditions Philippe Rey and the Senegalese house Jimsaan, won the Prix Goncourt — making him the first sub-Saharan African writer to receive it. It appeared in English in 2023 as "The Most Secret Memory of Men".