All prizes Tunisia
Prix littéraires Comar d'Or
Tunisia · Since 1997 · For books in Arabic or French
Awarded each spring in Tunis by the insurer Comar to the best Tunisian novel of the year, with separate prizes for novels in Arabic and in French. This site lists the winners of the main prize, the Comar d'Or, in both languages.
The insurer Comar set up the prizes with the support of the Tunisian Ministry of Culture, on the initiative of its then chairman, Rachid Ben Jemia, and first awarded them in 1997. Authors must be Tunisian, and the novel may be published in Tunisia or abroad. Two juries, one per language, made up of critics, academics and journalists, each give three prizes: the Comar d'Or, a special jury prize for originality and a discovery prize for a promising book. In 2026 the Comar d'Or was raised from 10,000 to 15,000 dinars. Entries have grown from 13 novels in the first session to a record 92 in 2026, 59 in Arabic and 33 in French. A 2016 press article credited the prize with lifting novel sales and encouraging publishers to take on more manuscripts. Winners include Yamen Manaï, Fawzia Zouari and Shukri Mabkhout, whose al-Talyani won in 2015.
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Comar d'Or 2020 · Winner
لا نسبح في النهر مرتين · La Nasbahu fi al-Nahr Marratayn
Hassouna Mosbahi · 70 when first published
Novel · 232 pages · Politics
AI-generated summary:In Tunisia after the fall of Ben Ali, three men take turns telling their lives: an insurance clerk sliding into paranoia, a retired postal worker from Bizerte, and an intellectual back from thirty years in Paris.
Comar d'Or 2017 · Winner
L'Amas ardent
Yamen Manai · 37 when first published
Novel · 204 pages · Satire, Politics, Nature
AI-generated summary:Near Nawa, a village in the Tunisian hinterland, a beekeeper known as the Don lives apart from the world with his bees, until he finds his colonies mutilated in a country still shaken by its recent revolution.
Comar d'Or 2015 · Winner
الطلياني · al-Talyani
Shukri Mabkhout · 52 when first published
Novel · 368 pages · Politics, Love
AI-generated summary:At his father's funeral, Abdel Nasser, nicknamed the Italian, attacks his neighbour, the imam, in front of stunned mourners. A friend reconstructs his life from childhood to find out why.
Also: IPAF 2015 winner