Gaël Faye

Gaël Faye was born in 1982 in Burundi. Since 1994, after the outbreak of civil war in the country, he has lived in France.During his teenage years, he became involved with rap and hip hop, and in 2008 he began his music career. Today, he is one of the most successful musicians of his genre in France. His first novel, titled Small Country (trans. Giannis Strigos, Patakis Publishers, 2017), was awarded the Goncourt des Lycéens and FNAC prizes in 2016. It has been translated into more than 40 languages, sold over 17 million copies worldwide, and was adapted into a film in 2020, directed by Éric Barbier.His second novel, titled Jacaranda (trans. Giannis Strigos, Patakis Publishers, 2026), was first published in French in 2024 and received the Renaudot Prize the same year. In 2025, it won the Choix Goncourt de la Grèce award, presented by the French Institute of Greece. In the first three months after its release, it sold over 160,000 copies and is being translated into more than 20 languages.