John Grisham

Each year, the jury of six journalists and writers, composed of Ariane Bois Heilbronn, François Forestier, Jean-Claude Lamy, Eric Neuhoff, Patrick Poivre d'Arvor and Colombe Schneck, awards the Lucien Barrière Literary Prize during the Deauville American Film Festival, under the patronage of Béatrice Nakache.

The 2018 Lucien-Barrière Literary Award is awarded to the novel: "The Fitzgerald Case" by John Grisham. On the occasion of his visit, the Festival will present three film adaptations of his work.

Born in 1955 in the United States, John Grisham is the author of 29 novels of fiction, one tell-all novel and six books for young people. After earning a law degree, he joined a law firm where he practiced for ten years, specializing in criminal cases. In 1984, during a trial, he was shocked by the testimony of a child rape victim and decided to write his first novel, "Not guilty". Many of his novels belong to the sub-genre of crime fiction.
Several of his works have been adapted for the cinema, including "The Firm" by Sydney Pollack (1993), "The Pelican Case" by Alan J. Pakula (1993), "The Client" by Joel Schumacher (1994), "The Idealist" by Francis Ford Coppola (1997), and "The Gingerbread Man" by Robert Altman (1998).

His novel "The Fitzgerald Case": Criminals rob the Princeton University library. Their loot is declared priceless, but Princeton has insured it for twenty-five million dollars. Bruce Cable owns a famous bookstore in Santa Rosa, a quiet town on Camino Island, Florida. Although his business is prosperous, the money comes mostly from the trade of collectible books. Few people, however, know that Cable often resorts to the black market and passes on stolen manuscripts and books. Mercer Mann is a young novelist. She suffers from acute writer's block and has just lost her teaching position. She is contacted by a mysterious woman working for an equally mysterious company. She is offered a handsome sum to infiltrate Bruce Cable and his circle of literary friends. Her mission is to get close enough to him and discover his secrets. But Mercer will learn too much, and the trouble will begin. Heaven is about to turn into hell, a relentless metamorphosis as only John Grisham can tell it.