Moroccan-French novelist Leïla Slimani won the Prix Goncourt in 2016 for 'Chanson Douce', becoming one of the leading literary voices of her generation.
**Leïla Slimani** is one of the most prominent Francophone writers of her generation. Born in **Rabat in 1981** to a Moroccan father — economist and minister Othman Slimani — and a Franco-Algerian mother who was Morocco's first female ENT specialist, she grew up between French and Arabic before moving to Paris to study political science.
**Debut: Dans le jardin de l'ogre (2014):**
Slimani made her literary debut with **"Dans le jardin de l'ogre"** (Adèle in English), a sharp novel about a sex-addicted Parisian journalist that drew immediate critical attention for its cool, clinical prose.
**Prix Goncourt for Chanson Douce (2016):**
In 2016, her second novel, **"Chanson Douce"** (Lullaby / The Perfect Nanny in English), won the **Prix Goncourt**, France's most prestigious literary prize. Inspired by a real news story, the book opens with the line *"The baby is dead."* It became a worldwide bestseller, translated into more than forty languages, and **the second-best-selling Goncourt winner of the 21st century in France**.
**Personal Representative for Francophonie:**
In 2017, President **Emmanuel Macron** appointed Slimani his **Personal Representative for the Francophonie**, a role she used to defend literature, women's rights and the diversity of French-language voices.
**A Voice on Women, Morocco and Identity:**
Beyond fiction, Slimani writes essays and journalism. Her book **"Sexe et mensonges"** investigates the sexual lives of Moroccan women, while her **"Le Pays des autres"** trilogy traces a Moroccan family across the 20th century.
**A New Literary Generation:**
With **Tahar Ben Jelloun** before her and a new wave of Maghrebi authors after, Slimani embodies a confident, transnational Moroccan literature that speaks from Paris and Rabat alike, and that holds its own at the very top of the Francophone canon.