![Didier Decoin est mort. [ALAIN JOCARD / AFP]](/cdn-cgi/image/onerror=redirect,width=640,height=640,format=webp/https://storage.googleapis.com/uploads.mongoosehq.com/url/media/162925707/ba7f1a4cc6bdf60e850e88e9f2df9caf4341398df63ff58f085e441f77e841a4)
Overview
- The Académie Goncourt announced that Didier Decoin died on Wednesday morning at a hospital in Villejuif after several years battling cancer, his son Julien told AFP.
- Decoin won the Prix Goncourt in 1977 for John l'Enfer and led the Académie Goncourt as its president from 2020 to 2024, roles that made him a central figure in French literary life.
- He built a dual career as a novelist and screenwriter with about thirty books and collaborations with filmmakers such as Marcel Carné, Robert Enrico and Henri Verneuil.
- His last novel, Maypops, was published in April 2026 and drew on a true-crime story in the southern United States, and his son said Decoin was still reading entries for the upcoming Goncourt when he fell ill.
- He will be buried in Auderville on the Cotentin coast facing the sea, and his death removes an active voice from the institutions that shape France's literary calendar and prize season.