At the beginning of 2018, he spent nearly two months in Chiapas, staying in one of the five centers of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation and in an indigenous community as part of a Civil Observation Brigade.
Initially not included in the list of the prix Goncourt du premier roman 2016, Joseph Andras was finally the winner, on May 9, 2016, with five votes, with four going to Catherine Poulain for Le Grand Marin and one going to Loulou Robert for Bianca,[4][5][6] that is - and exceptional fact - two days before its release in bookstores.
[Note 1] It is the second Goncourt du premier roman consecutive novel for the editions Actes Sud, what is more about the theme of the Algerian war, after The Meursault Investigation by Kamel Daoud rewarded the previous year.
[2] – Joseph Andras sent a letter to the Académie Goncourt to decline the prize and his endowment, justifying his decision by declaring that "competition, and rivalry were in his eyes notions foreign to writing and creation.
[3][7][8] As a result of these interrogations, Joseph Andras gave interviews to L'Humanité and to the literary supplement of the Beirut daily L'Orient-Le Jour in which he explained his motivations and his work as a novelist to salute the memory of Fernand Iveton and, again, the reasons for his refusal of the prize: "I could not accept it for the sake of consistency, to help "Institutionalize" this narrative and the ideals worn by the characters.