American author Richard Ford has been awarded the Femina Prize for best foreign novel for his book Canada about a boy whose parents rob a bank. The Femina Prize is one of France’s top literary awards and is judged by an all-woman jury. The Femina Prize is awarded in three categories – best French novel, best foreign novel and best essay. The best French novel award went to Cameroonian author Leonora Miano for Le Saison de l’ombre (The Season of Darkness) about the loss of loved ones experienced by sub-Saharan Africans during the slave trade. The best essay prize went to Jean-Paul and Raphael Enthoven for a work entitled Dictionnaire amoureux de Proust.
Prior to the publication of Canada in 2012 Ford was best known for his Frank Bascombe trilogy – The Sportswriter (1986), Independence Day (1995) and The Lay of the Land (2006).