Suzanne Prou (1920–1995)

Suzanne Prou, née Doreau, was born in Grimaud, a village near Saint-Tropez, France, and grew up partly in Algeria and Indochina, where her father served as an officer in the French army. She studied at the universities of Marseille and Aix-en-Provence and received a degree in literature in 1942. During the Nazi occupation of France in World War II, she produced an underground newspaper that denounced anti-Semitism, and after the war was awarded the Legion of Honor. In 1944, she married Charles Prou, with whom she had a daughter. She published her first novel, Les Patapharis (The Patapharis Affair), in 1966. Of her two dozen novels, the best-known is La Terrasse des Bernardini, which won the Prix Renaudot in 1973. She also wrote several books for children. She served on the jury for the Prix Femina.