Sébastien Lapaque was awarded the Grand prix du Roman of the Académie française for his novel Le rappel des oiseaux, published by Actes Sud.
The third round of voting saw Lapaque receive eight votes, narrowly beating Yannick Haenel, who obtained seven, and Marie Petitcuénot, who garnered three.
Actes Sud announced that the prize will be followed by a reprint of the novel, with an initial run of 30,000 copies.
The decision marks a notable surprise within the literary community, given the tight competition among the three shortlisted authors.